It’s no secret that I spend far too much time scrolling through TikTok. I was hesitant to get involved with yet another social network, as I’ve been feeling social media burnout for some time. Perhaps that’s the real reason I’ve become enamored with TikTok: I can simply consume infinite, creative content, still remain anonymous and the algorithm is sophisticated enough to know what sorts of things I enjoy.
While TikTok has (perhaps unexpectedly) become a dominant force in the social media sphere, that sphere continues to fragment into more niche services. New platforms continue to pop up, geared towards specific demographics and populations.
- Loot is a viral social network that looks like nothing you’ve ever seen [The Verge] “So far, this seems like any other NFT story: weird artwork is released, price goes up quickly. What makes Loot different is the number and variety of projects that have spun up around it at a staggering speed.”
- Minus is a finite social network where have a limit of 100 posts—for life [Boing Boing] “Once you’ve made your 100 posts, there is no going back—that’s it. On Minus, there are no likes, follows, or noisy notifications. The only visible metric on the site is a count down, showing how many posts each user has left.”
- Social network Peanut expands to include more women with launch of Peanut Menopause [TechCrunch] “Women can join groups, ask questions and get advice, or even join live audio conversations hosted by experts, through Peanut’s newer live audio rooms feature, Peanut Pods. And they can use the app’s matchmaking feature to discover other women who are also in their same demographic, where they can chat using messaging or video.”
- Five Upcoming Social Networks To Keep An Eye On In 2021 [Forbes] “You don’t want to be unprepared for upcoming social media networks that may gain traction in the near future. You never know which ones will thrive. Still, these five upcoming social media networks look like platforms worth watching.”
From the Ohio Web Library:
- Purrch, A New Social Network For The Pet Community, Partners With Leading Rescue Organizations To Help Them Reach Prospective Pet Owners (PR Newswire. (2021, February 10). Purrch, A New Social Network For The Pet Community, Partners With Leading Rescue Organizations To Help Them Reach Prospective Pet Owners. PR Newswire US.)
- Richie Knows, a New Local Social Network Designed for Gamers, Announces Vent, a Virtual Mental Health Spa Providing Resources and Destigmatizing Mental Health Issues in the Gaming Community (R Newswire. (2021, July 26). Richie Knows, a New Local Social Network Designed for Gamers, Announces Vent, a Virtual Mental Health Spa Providing Resources and Destigmatizing Mental Health Issues in the Gaming Community. PR Newswire US.)
- The New Social Network (LOGRA, I. (2020). The New Social Network. Entrepreneur, 48(4), 48–49.)
