Make social fun again

They finally did it.

After talking about removing likes for years and testing across 7 countries, Facebook took the plunge and removed likes. Kind of. They gave us the option to, including the option to hide on a per-post basis.

While influencers and creators often rely on the visibility of likes, the cultural implications are one of the reasons makers and adopters have looked to bolster other social networks. They miss low-stress posting and authenticity, even though Gen Z would probably consider filter-heavy millennial posts from the early days of Instagram to be “cheugy.”

Though it has its problems too, TikTok has been the golden child of late with viral videos as simple as mouthing the words to a pre-recorded snippet. Newcomers interested in more authentic interactions include BitClout and Dispo. We’re still waiting to see if the former really takes off. The latter took a blow with some negative press, so much so that many took the opportunity to reference it while the newest buzzy social app, Poparazzi, blew up this week.

Poparazzi rocketed to fame on Wednesday after hitting #1 in the App Store on its first day of launch. Tech Twitter was going wild for Poparazzi’s onboarding flow but the main headline here is an app that does away with selfies. Instead, it opts for the approach of snapping a pic of your friends, literally requiring you to add friends and tag them in order to post.

Then Schmooze launched, an app where you match with others based on the memes you both like. Although Schmooze is a dating app right now, maker Vidya Madhavan first approached the idea as a way to foster new friendships. The concept sprouted after a LinkedIn chat with a new contact turned into an email thread of jokes and fun with a new friend.

Contrary to match apps based on profile pics and surveys, Schmooze feels much more authentic to how people really engage. Commenters wrote on the launch page:

“Love how this takes the superficiality out of the dating app game!" - Marisa Puli Reddy

“This dating app is exactly what we need: less focused on finely-tuning a curated picture of yourself and 'shopping' for others based on their carefully calibrated profiles -- more emphasis on aligning people based on something real…”- Joseph Morcos

We’ll have to wait and see if Facebook’s super flexible hide option is enough to keep users happy or if they’ll jump ship as products focused on authentic interactions gain traction.

Do you plan to use new hide features on Instagram or Facebook?

Speaking of buzzy, if you thought NFTs would be over by now, we have to say you were wrong. One of the newest headlines is that the University of California, Berkeley has minted digital art of invention disclosure forms filed by the creators of CRISPR and cancer immunotherapy. In other words, you can now buy a piece of a Nobel prize-winning discovery.

John Crain, SuperRare founder, is explaining why NFTs aren’t going away and why data is the future of art collecting. Read it here.