Out With the Old, In With the New

Most of us can admit that we spend way too much time checking how many Instagram likes we have on our latest post, or who liked our new profile picture on Facebook. But who can blame us? Anything you can imagine is on the Internet, from the Kim Kardashian game to the Sparknotes app. Most of us are familiar with the ever popular Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. However, there are many other social media apps that have yet to be discovered. Each app has their own unique features that make the use of our phones endless.

Thumb is a relatively unknown app that is unlike any other concept of social media. Users can upload a photo of a topic they want the opinion of, and that picture is instantly blasted out to random users across the country who either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

For example, I uploaded the suggested picture of  waffles and within seconds I had 16 votes, 67 percent of which gave it a thumbs down and the rest gave it a thumbs up. I was a little insulted that two thirds of people didn’t share my same love for waffles, but I got over it eventually.

On Thumb, everything from what shirt to wear to who to vote for can be found. Users can also ask questions and people can comment back with their opinion. Students even upload pictures of homework by adding a caption requesting help, a tool that I will definitely be using in the near future. Your imagination can run wild on Thumb, with endless possibilities of what to post.

The app Yo can be used to say just about anything to anyone. It could not be more simple, yet it is impossible not to smile at. Yo is similar to the concept of Snapchat, but instead of receiving a picture, users receive a recording of the sound “Yo.” Users can send each other “Yo’s” across the world. That’s all it is, but some people just can’t seem to get enough.

Though most would probably roll their eyes at the concept of Yo and ridicule it for its stupidity, just like I did when I first heard about it, the app is proving to be successful. Many happy users are posting things about Yo across the Internet. One user wrote to the Washington Post saying, “Speaking is now unnecessary and obsolete — Yo is all I need.”  Whether Yo is the most ingenious idea of the 21st Century, or just plain ridiculous is debatable, but millions of people across the world are hooked on it.

Oovoo gives you the satisfaction of a social media platform, but combines it with face – to – face interaction. I always hear people age 40 and over whining on about how kids spend way too much time on the Internet. We’ve all heard the cliche statement, “no one ever makes face to face contact anymore blah blah blah.”

Oovoo has solved this problem. It allows users to create an “Oovie,” or movie, which they than can post on their wall. The face – to – face interaction part allows people to make video calls one to one, or within a group message. Users can video chat in a group to work on a school project, or to discuss their plans for the night. Video calls in a group message setting are completely innovative, yet familiar to something we already know — group messages. Oovoo also claims to have the highest quality video for a free download, and 100 million satisfied users.

Think of the 3 social media outlets you use the most, then imagine them all rolled up into one. This is what Pheed has done, and it is proving to be a success. It is similar to Pinterest. You can explore a different “board” of topics, but the topics include things like art, nature, funny, and it is not restricted to just pictures. While scrolling through the music board I found pictures of album covers, music videos, and recordings of songs. People can like, dislike, remix, or give Pheedback to anything on Pheed. Rather than following users, people can subscribe to users in order to be notified when someone they have subscribed to posts something.

The thing that stands out the most to me about Pheed is the “dislike” button. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a selfie on Facebook and thought, “I wish I could dislike this”, but sadly have been unable to. Now that Pheed has granted me this wish, I can carry on surfing through Pheed in peace. Pheed is becoming a top competitor with social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter, purely because of its versatility, according to Huffington Post. If you ever find yourself at a loss of what else to look at on Instagram, Pheed is definitely a worthy download.