Headed to cocktail party but want to skip the routine conversation icebreakers (#yawn)? Strike up a discussion by name-dropping one of these hot apps and their influence on how we value our personal lives.
As technology and social media push globalization to a new level of intimacy, and the NSA gets reigned in on domestic spying, the topic of privacy vs. publicity is clearly abuzz. Having a finger on the social pulse is a great way to quickly assess the first reactions to these changes in societal behavior.
Scan the CliffsNotes on these 3 new apps and draw your own impression:
Snapchat
If you are a parent of kids between 12-18 years old, you’ve heard the murmuring about Snapchat. (Psst – your kids aren’t using Facebook anymore because, don’t take this personally, you’re using it.)
This app protects the sanctity of those private teenage moments by allowing users to snap a photo or video, select the recipients, and send. The catch is that they also get to choose how long the content will appear on the recipient’s screen for: 1 – 10 seconds.
And yes, it’s popular. The app is pushing 30 million active users and 400+ million photos sent daily.
Snapchat has recently received a slap on the wrist (do ghosts have wrists?) from the FTC for their recent “oops-your-photos-didn’t-actually-disappear” confession.
Path
For the times that you have a shareable photo that you want some, but not all, of the world to see, you may feel out of luck. Only public spaces like Facebook and Instagram are at your disposal, putting your semi-private moment at risk of complete exposure.
Path to the rescue! Choose who sees your moments (i.e. posts) by sharing with a few select friends or publicly on your favorite social media sites like Twitter or Tumblr. This ad-free zone gives you the liberty of privately messaging photos, videos, music, voice messages, stickers, and more.
And just in case you get trigger-happy and decide you want to be the MySpace Tom of Path, hold your horses. Path has set a limit of 150 friends per user. Private is the new public.
Airbnb
Calling all nomads and jetsetters! Looking to set flight soon and need a place to stay? Choose from over 600K listings in 34K cities within 192 countries worldwide. If you’re wondering whether or not those listings include castles, pssh, of course they do (600+).
But you won’t be staying in a hotel, no. You’re choosing your temporary dwelling from thousands of actual apartments, villas, and treehouses owned by other Airbnb users; and are simply renting for the desired length of stay. For some, this version of cozy is borderline creepy. After all, sharing a home with, or renting it from, a total stranger isn’t appetizing to all. But others think of it as a dressed up Craigslist version of a travel site. (Need we mention castles again?)
What makes Airbnb social? Besides creating connections between unlikely candidates, the app also lets you find accommodations with friends, people from your alma mater, and others that come recommended by your friends.
So, what are your thoughts on public vs. private social media apps? Share with us in the discussion below.
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