Every so often, a cultural trend becomes a phenomenon. Malcolm Gladwell called it the tipping point. General nostalgia classically refers to it as the zeitgeist. And, alas, surely as Chuck Taylors compliment skinny jeans, sometimes these phenomena meet, the wake of which leaves us in a changed world.
Enter Shots of Me, the spanking new Bieber-backed, feature-packed – that’s right – SELFIE APP.
It’s about time these two got together.
Shots of Me is dedicated to, and formatted only for, the recently exploding trend known as Selfies – pictures taken of oneself, often using a smartphone’s front-facing camera feature, to post on a social networking site like Facebook or Instagram. (Teenaged Selfie pioneers might even add that duck-face is necessary, but I say smile if you wanna).
Now consider – impressed as we are with your fancy dinner, or the beautiful beachscape you want the world of social networking to appreciate with you, what was the last Instagram photo of food or nature that you actually “liked”? The one’s we click the tell-tale heart icon for are, more commonly than not, photos of people. Even lesser known psychologists maintain that when we see a smile, we smile, when we see a frown, we frown. We are social creatures – even in digital 2D.
According to techcrunch.com, that’s what Rocklive CEO John Shahidi, who conceived the new app, figured too:
“People enjoy looking at humans,” Shahidi told techcrunch. “Not just yourself. People like looking at other people.”
Flashy filters can only make mashed potatoes or a city block or a quote in fancy font so interesting. So what Shots of Me was able to accomplish with their launch in the App Store just yesterday (sorry Droiders, Play Store forsaken), is an app dedicated to a faces-only feed. To boot, they introduce a whole new format for comments – there are none.
“People share photos because they felt so positive at that moment,” said Shahidi to techcruch. “Drama kills that moment.”
Liking is the main interactive feature, so if you’re feeling good about yourself, it won’t be counteracted by a negative comment (they’re just jealous, anyway). You can also ping followers like Twitter to discuss in private, there’s a pretty fancy feed format (Rocklive aimed to keep the quality high), and – similar to Snapchat – you must take the photo in the app, so each Selfie is in-the-moment.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/12/justin-bieber-shots-of-me/
