What does it mean to always be connected? What exactly is it that we are connecting to when we log onto our platforms of choice, and see the finely curated stories and events that individuals post to their timelines? Do you feel connected to this person, whom you see in a picture that may well have been heavily edited? Do you feel connected to the person who always likes your recent updates, but never directly message? Are the few connections that you hold superficial in some way?<\/p>\n
I believe that social media is at its simplest – and best – when utilized primarily as a chat function. It emphasizes the personal connection between two users in one instance. Mass sharing, I believe, is at the crux of a lot of issues that social media has. Mass sharing involves likes, likes involves anxiety and status, and I don\u2019t believe that imaginary numbers should have the right to influence any one person\u2019s opinion over themselves or the world around them. Unfortunately, it\u2019s an expected standard of social media, and so its omittance from my platform would raise some eyebrows. Despite that, that doesn\u2019t mean that it needs to be the shiniest tool in the box. Although we can always have the option of posting an update to an entire host of online personas, perhaps what’s most important is a conversation. Only through real meaningful interactions can we truly be connected.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been said a number of times in recent years that video is on track to be the most commonly consumed type of media. The popularity of TikTok is a prime example of this. TikTok, however, is also a pinnacle of mass sharing. So, what if we took the video sharing capabilities of TikTok, and put an emphasis on that kind of video creation between one person and another? Perhaps even a group chat?<\/span><\/p>\n In my mind, I more or less just see another version of Snapchat, perhaps with a bit of refinement, and without the looming shadow of Facebook\u2019s data collection above its head. On paper this sounds alright, but nobody is going to enthusiastically jump to download it. It won\u2019t be a killer app, right out the gate, with only these specifications. So, what do we do to spice it up?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Consider a bit of anecdotal evidence, for a moment. My friend groups are drawn to Snapchat primarily because of its many filters, which can range from a simple color change to replacing one\u2019s face with Donkey\u2019s from Shrek. To me, that doesn\u2019t sound hard to emulate, or even to improve upon. In addition, I find the ways you can edit your recorded video on Snapchat lackluster and disappointing. The interface is clunky, the options limited mostly to the same aforementioned filters you can access before you even start recording. In short: why not make a filmmaker\u2019s chat app?<\/span><\/p>\n Social reasoning is my concentrated criteria. I believe that social media is the thing that most strongly influences people today, positively or negatively. I feel that people are more concerned over how a faceless group of people perceives them, rather than the individuals that they sit next to and interact with on a daily basis. I think that, as a counteractive measure, there should be a greater emphasis on the personal relationships that people have with one another, because I fear that in time, we will lose that. There is a very real danger here. Through attempting to feel connected with one another at all times, we are only ever connected to false narratives that we concoct in order to fool ourselves – as well as everyone around us – that we are living better and happier lives than we really are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My (perhaps vain) hope would be that people would come away from platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to not just my platform, but any that puts the personal connections of individuals first. By extension, I hope that they would feel comfortable in their data being only theirs. No targeted ads, no selling valuable personal statistics to other companies. Preferably, the app would only store only essential data that it would use to operate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Outside of the expected startup and maintenance, I struggle to find a real cost associated with emphasizing the personal connections that people hold with one another. Perhaps I\u2019ll play out a scenario in which the personal connections between people are <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> important. Just as with Facebook and mass sharing platforms, sharing one\u2019s entire life became too commonplace and held consequences that I doubt anyone really considered. Perhaps on my platform, people would begin to use it as a replacement for in person interaction. Perhaps my fancy video edits and filters would become the preferred mode of communication, and people would lose in-person social literacy; they would only know how to interact performatively, behind a camera. Perhaps the very problem I was trying to solve, that of the authenticity of interaction, would be lost as soon as my solution worked too well, and became a preferable alternative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Authentic, Peer-to-Peer Connection What does it mean to always be connected? What exactly is it that we are connecting to when we log onto our platforms of choice, and see the finely curated stories and events that individuals post to their timelines? Do you feel More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[171],"class_list":["post-16919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-task-7"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pahVQP-4oT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16921,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16919\/revisions\/16921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/nmd200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Innovative design\u2014Describe your new design, app, service, product, etc.<\/h3>\n
Upgraded criteria\u2014state your criteria and why you picked it. Why is it important to you & your community?<\/h3>\n
Supportive context\u2014describe context or world\/community that will support this<\/h3>\n
Weigh Costs\u2014Evaluate expected costs\u2014materials. labor, etc\u2013this is not a number or monetary figure, but rather a description of the expected costs to the environment, people etc.<\/h3>\n