Social media has always been a way for us to connect with friends. Twitter gives us live updates of their activities, Instagram shows us photos of where they've been, and Foursquare allows them to virtually check in to nearby locations. But what if there was an app designed for the exact opposite purpose - to help us avoid our friends?
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| mashable.com |
The new app Cloak does just that. Created by Buzzfeed's former creative director Chris Baker and programmer Brian Moore, Cloak teams up with other popular apps that use location data to help you be more anti-social. Cloak creates a map of all your nearby friends' whereabouts, allowing you to 'flag' particular friends you don't want to see. Then, if you get too close (the default distance is half a mile), Cloak will warn you to stay away. So far, Cloak uses location data from Instagram and Foursquare but has plans to try to expand in the future.
In an email to the Washington Post, Baker said: “I think we’ve seen the crest of the big social network … I think anti-social stuff is on the rise. You’ll be seeing more and more of these types of projects.”
I think there is some truth to what Baker is saying, but I think apps like Cloak take it a little too far. I do think we've already seen the crest of the big social network. I also think people are starting to resent the state of constant connectedness that has defined my generation post-Facebook. With this resentment we're starting to see a kind of backlash. Exclusive restaurants and bars have started instituting 'no phone' policies. Companies are calling for 'no phone days' to alleviate employees' constant attachment to technology. And perhaps most interesting, studies show that millennials are in general dissatisfied with the pervasive role technology plays in their lives.
But here's where I think Baker and apps like Cloak have got it wrong. The days of the social network as we know it may be numbered, but what people yearn for is not an anti-social network. It's a network of fewer, but deeper and more authentic connections. By banning cell phones at nightclubs, management is forcing patrons to interact the old fashioned way, forming connections through genuine, face-to-face interaction.
Our tech-weary generation doesn't want to use our phones to stay less connected, we just want to connect to friends in more meaningful ways. And apps like Cloak aren't the answer.
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