Social sites can open new doors
It can be a lonely world out there, especially when there’s no Wi-Fi. But sometimes, even with a secure Internet connection, digital life can be lonely.
Keeping in touch is presumably made easier with social media. With new social networks and apps constantly being added, however, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the platforms. Take Nextdoor, for example. This app is a private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. Through this app, you have the ability to talk to others around you and, as the app promises, be able to make the area around you better and safer.
As great as this all sounds, there’s just one problem: Not every single neighborhood uses it. Even the USC community — one that is filled with tech-savvy and proactive students — has not taken advantage of it. In total, there are roughly 30 students who are part of the social network in the surrounding area. It’s not a terribly small number, but for such a large student body, it’s strange how an idea such as this wouldn’t be more popular among millennials who are always ready to socialize.
Unfortunately, it’s an epidemic that plagues many apps and websites that want to be the next Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
One app that might have the potential of becoming the next giant social network is Path. Founded by former Facebook employee Dave Morin, the app differentiates itself by limiting its users to an intimate 250 friends.
Despite the fact that Path has 20 million users, I feel extremely isolated within the app. And it’s not the friend limit that makes me feel this way. Rather, only a few of my friends use Path, and they aren’t all that active on it. I had come to use Path as a personal diary, but eventually ended up deleting the app altogether.
A larger user base itself is not always the key to a healthy and thriving social network. It can’t hurt, of course, but there’s more to these communities than just the numbers.
A social network should bring everyone involved closer together through similar interactions. Nextdoor has the right idea, but since it’s designed to send out alerts to entire communities and not just individuals, finding appropriate times to interact without being awkward or intrusive are rare.
On the other hand, there are a number of apps that bring strangers together through common motives and goals. Happier, for instance, is an app that wants to remind you of your happy times. The app not only works as a journal, but also a social network where you can share your own happy moments and view other people’s happy moments.
As a semi-pessimist, I wanted to hate this app instantly. Happy people posting about their happy moments? Ugh. But the more I used the app, the more I actually started feeling happier. And when I ventured on to interact with the community, I also felt happy for others who posted about moments such as successfully baking a pie or adopting a new puppy.
I never forged any meaningful relationships with anyone in the Happier community, but I felt like I had a sort of Happier support group backing me.
Everest, a similar type of self-improvement app, wants its users to set and attain short-term and long-term goals. Like Happier, you can choose to what degree you want to interact with the rest of the community. Is someone sticking to their promise to go running every day? Leave him or her an encouraging comment. Want to suggest challenges for people to take on? You’ll get at least a couple of positive responses.
Though it might be different depending on who you know, I find that that I know very few people who use these apps. And frankly, for me, that’s what makes these social networks stronger and more intriguing.
But how successful would an app be if the interactions between users were limited? Frontback is an app that splices selfies and forward-facing snapshots. It’s a simple idea, albeit a bit silly, but so far it has garnered hundreds of thousands of downloads. In terms of its social network aspect, users can only like other photos or follow others. There are no options for comments or messages, only captions.
Since the active audience using the app is still relatively small, the community feels cozy and inviting. The photos that show up on the newsfeed are a mixture of staff-picked and personal follows, which encourage people to like photos of completely random people and, through likes, participate in this selfie-adoring community.
But there really isn’t a specific formula for social networking — it’s mostly about luck, originality, and most of all, getting a headstart. Giant social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram became big because they crunched the numbers and laid down the code before others since, eventually, similar sites would’ve been created — regardless of whether or not Mark Zuckerberg endorsed them.
But what are other social network platforms and apps supposed to do when so much of the market is already satiated? If you are an aspiring app creator, you have to be realistic — it’ll be difficult for you to pull off the next Facebook. There’s a better market for niche social networks such as Tastemade, a foodie-friendly social video community, but if you’re looking to aggregate millions upon millions of active and devoted users, chances are, unfortunately, you won’t.
Sara Clayton is a junior majoring in public relations. Her column “Tech Today” runs Tuesdays.
Follow Sara on Twitter @saraclay15