It’s interesting to look at various social networks and communities and how we interact with them – particularly how we interact with services that are by default public as well as private apps. Another interesting dynamic are services where we use our real name vs pseudonyms.
I find it’s interesting some services lend themselves to be more aspirational while others lend themselves to be more “authentic”. I was talking to an entrepreneur the other day and he was telling me that he is extremely careful about what he posts on public networks because hes trying to maintain a particular image & “brand”.
Pinterest has built a very popular service which is aspirational as well as authentic. I’m not an active Pinterest user so it’s not clear to me whether most users tend to use it more aspirationally vs authentically (ie functionally). My casual observation is it’s more aspirational.
If you look at Kik, all of the content is authentic. Content in your messaging isn’t about sharing what you aspire to be, or how your public image/profile is being perceived. It is what it is.
I look at Foursquare as heavily leaning towards the authentic side of things. I’m sharing my location with people I know personally.
People tweet for different reasons. I tend to just let them fly.
Same with Tumblr. When you I write down things like this and this, I do it for me first and then for you (if you care).
That’s one of the reasons I love Timehop. The value of Timehop increases the more transparent and authentic each user is on various social apps.
I’m not suggesting there is only one way to use social apps. There is something to said for each type of use case.
But in my own experience, you truly get what you give.