Doesn’t even have to be Apple, the wife and I are on different carriers and I saw the same shenanigans happening.

Signal app or Threema or really any other independent messaging app (except whatsapp, strangely) solved the issue.

Im also sorry to hear about sneezy mcglassfaces mom. The BBS I hung out on always referred to people who always act on “bigger is better” and hated anything unusual/ foreign as “Reptiles” because well reptiles behave the same way. I think we all thought it was clever and funny. Fast forward a few years the place is full of people apparently really believing reptiles in human skin suits are real and control the world. Similar thing i saw happening a few years later with the warhammer community. Talk about people unable to read sarcasm.

Thank you, I found this list very helpful! I’m also relatively new to Mastodon and still trying to figure out how all of it works. For some reason my mobile client puts #catsofmastodon first and foremost, making it my current cute pictures/ dopamine app ;)

Bought a cheap smart tv that works good. Then I put a Pi-Hole on my home lan. Wow that was a nescessary step! 10/10 better than using a dumb tv / appletv or firestick combo since it blocks the telemetry of all the machines on my network. Can recommend.