Facebook is turning 11 next week, which in Internet years is about 75 or 80. We need something new, and quick …
Facebook is turning 11 next week, which in Internet years is about 75 or 80. It’s archaic, becoming arthritic and starting to smell like mothballs and overlapped rugs. What then is the next big thing; because if there are any other social outlets out there (aside from the obvious Twitter and Instagrams) we need to know. We’re not going to be left in the dark like a decrepit nobody. We need to stay hip.
And therein lies a developer's dilemma: How to reinvent the social platform without falling victim to saturation like every other brand and laying the initial spark to be the hip kid on the app block. Pinyata, a newly launched social app, is looking to build that flame of credibility.
Any new players in the social arena need to attract younger generations. As 19-year-old Andrew Watts says on Pinyata’s introductory .pdf, “Facebook is dead to us. It’s something we all got in middle school because it was cool, but now is seen as an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave.”
The youth have spoken.
Pinyata was developed with the social teen to tween in mind. Consider it this way, if Instagram got sweet on Twitter but Reddit wouldn’t leave the two alone and they all somehow had some weird social media baby — it would be that. Confused? We were too, but just like our parents eventually learned how to text somewhere in mid-2013, we can learn the ways of this, too.
As any other platform, the user builds a profile using their greatest selfie ever imagined. They then connect with other users and hold on for the ride. Sounds pretty much exactly the same as other sites, yes? It is, but we think that’s going to be its strongest ally. Whatever you can do on Pinyata is what you can do everywhere else, EXCEPT, this is new, and kids like new — and things to call their own.
An upside to the app is the potential for only being one-degree of separation from favorite artists. We can see a ton of potential with this thing through mid-level touring bands that want to connect to their fans in a unique atmosphere and who also have the downtime available to build a social army. Other sites provide the opportunity, but the canned, phony one-liners hocked by celebrity assistants via Twitter or Facebook just won’t cut it anymore.
Neon Trees' frontman Tyler Glenn has even signed up and documents his travels via his profile. Other artists will likely follow suit.
“Every time I get an notification that you ballooned my comments, my heart skips a beat….. I love you so much, Kylebear aha (emoji, emoji, emoji),” is one users reaction to her favorite celebrity “noticing” her. Things like that are indeed powerful, especially for teens just wanting to connect to their idols.
So while the app may not be a huge hit with older millenials who still take to their Facebook to offend people based off of religious fervor and grammar mistakes — or Twitter users who think they’re doing the world a service by re-tweeting botched news facts — it can very well be the next “fetch” thing for the coming-of-age generations.
And yes, you read that right, some 19 year olds actually did get Facebook in middle school and now they don’t like it anymore. Feel old yet?
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