APPS AND EXPLANATIONS

App #1
Name: Twitter
Cost: free

Twitter is a social media app which aims to connect people from all around the world. It
allows individuals to post ‘tweets’ on public or private accounts. Tweets can include videos,
images and text and can be about anything; a statement of how you’re day is going, a funny
video or meme, political news, pop culture updates, etc. Tweets you post go on your profile
which can be followed by friends or the general public depending on your settings. Your
profile will also show tweets you like or ‘retweet’ (repost).
Twitter is an app known for hosting a lot of controversy. People are free to write basically
whatever they want (with the exception of what goes against community guidelines), which
means all different opposing opinions are coming together to argue about any topic you
could think of; politics, sports, pop culture, tv shows, etc. This App also looks not only at
dialectical tensions between strangers online, but also at personal conflicts involving
openness-closedness as to what we want to share about ourselves online compared to what
we choose to keep private. Some people are frequent tweeters posting every thought they
have, whereas others prefer to just scroll and read maybe liking the occasional tweet. There
have been a lot of controversial things happening in the media recently regarding
influencers, cricket, and other world news and it has been interesting to compare all the
opposing opinions. Twitter has helped me realise how it is possible to have different
internal dialectical tensions coincide with our external tensions.
App #2
Name: Hinge
Cost: free

Hinge is a dating app that allows you to scroll through other profiles in hopes of finding a
match. The profiles contain space for pictures and prompts to help people get an
understanding of who you are and possibly start a conversation. In order to match you can
either send a ‘like’, or you can see if you want to match with whoever has sent you a like. On
the free version, you have limited amounts of likes and cannot look at all your likes at once
(must match or delete in order). Once you have matched, Hinge allows you to message
through the app in order to organise a date or exchange numbers.
I think Hinge is a very interesting dating app when it comes to relational dialectics. Like all
dating apps, there will be individual tensions regarding openness-closedness as we decide
what we want to share about ourselves and what we want to keep private. Hinge also has a
feature where it asks for political views, religious views, and what substances you use.
Displaying these is optional but most people decide to. Although it seems personal, it is a
good way to help people go through and try to find someone with similar values and
interests to themselves. Is it healthy to be trying to identify these possible tensions so early
on in a relationship or should we try work to get to know each other and work through
tensions that may appear? I can see the positives and negatives of both. People often post
prompts asking to debate a topic or stating their opinion on something controversial in
hopes to start a conversation. This is an interesting way people use light-hearted opposing
opinions in order to spark interest.
App #3
Name: Instagram
Cost: free

Instagram is a social media app with the primary aim of sharing photos and videos but has
many purposes including shopping and direct messaging. Instagram is commonly used by
people to promote their personal brand, a business, or to simply share their life with their
friends. You can post pictures on your ‘story’ that last 24 hours or you can post to your main
feed which will show up on your profile. Friends can follow one another’s profiles and
people can try to keep up with celebrities and other public figures.
Instagram is similar to Twitter in that it is a social media app where you are sharing things
about yourself, but Instagram is interesting as it really allows you to build your personal
‘brand’ or persona and is a great way to represent how you would like to be perceived. This
includes figuring out who you would like to post with you on Instagram. To some people,
making relationships official on Instagram or posting a significant other is a big deal and
something they don’t feel comfortable doing often if at all. Other people love to share every
detail of their relationship spamming as much content of the two of them as possible. This
really plays into the revelation-concealment tension as it looks into what you want to share
with your friends or the world and what you want to keep private. This can cause a lot of
problems in relationships as some people may feel their partner doesn't actually like them
because they never post them so they don’t feel like they're being publicly acknowledged or
appreciated and can also make people feel insecure in a relationship; “Why don’t they want
people to see photos of us together?”. On the opposite end, it might feel fake to a significant
other if they feel like they always have to document everything little thing and pose for the
camera. They might feel it takes away from the moment or wonder about their intentions
behind constantly posting them together; “Do they even like me or do they just want
everyone to see they are dating someone?”.