16 Comments

Clearly I've been living under a rock because I haven't heard of these hobby apps other than BeReal. I wonder what it's like to have too many of these apps...they sound better suited for people who like to compartmentalize parts of their life. If it's simply about connection with others, there are dating and friendship apps in existence.

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I think that having too many leads you to use all of them less, but it's definitely "in" right now. It'll be interesting to see how these apps do long term!

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Sep 17Liked by zoya

Excellent insights!

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Thanks!

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Okay I loooove soothr but have you tried pranakhon Thai? Also insanely good and in the same area!!!!

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Sep 17·edited Sep 17Author

Yesss I love Pranakhon! It's a great one. I actually don’t love soothr as much anymore lol, but I used it because I felt like more people could relate. I recently tried Tha Phraya in UES last week and it was super good too!

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your note that "people are status-seeking monkeys" is interesting and puts into words what i dislike most about these apps. they all feel so gamified/competitive, but i wonder if you can have a successful app without that aspect.

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The status part correlates to the gamification of the apps in my mind! I think without gamifying it I’m less likely to use it.

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I think hobby apps are both good and bad. They allow you to connect with communities you want to or are a part of. It allows you to segment certain friends in and out of certain areas of your life.

Like you said, you don’t want everyone seeing that you just ran 8 miles because you don’t want to be ‘that person’ but you’re proud of the run and you want your gym friends to see that.

This is the part I think is good and bad. It’s good to connect with all of your friends on things you love to do even if they don’t love to do the same activity.

What’s bad, is that because of social media, we’ve allowed our social circles to be way too big to the point we feel vulnerable in our own social circle.

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agreed, i think the larger issue at hand is that we feel vulernable because social circles are so large, especially on the apps we use the most. that's why i like instagram's "close friends" feature and i think that was their way of leaning into the issue.

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i remember being highly motivated by bereal in the beginning but when your routine is more or less the same, it kinda feels boring to show off you reading or writing or at work when nothing important is happening, which i guess is the point of the app but at some point like you said it becomes a chore. a friend of mine still uses it and apparently now you can appload multiple times a day whenever you feel like it which is just another app for insta stories, like you said, a massive flop if i've ever seen one

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right, i think on principle it has nothing to offer and always was going to be a trendy app. but, i guess it was fun while it lasted.

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Sep 17Liked by zoya

Where does substack rank in this

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good point.. that would be a meta post

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your post reminded me of @222place! have you heard of it? Its kind of like an app that hosts community events and brings people together in LA and NY- i want to say more cities. I signed up but have yet to go to an event.

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I haven't yet but that is super interesting! It looks like a cool concept, I wonder how it'll play out.

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