Social networks are basically part of people's everyday lives now, with each seemingly mundane moment being broadcasted for online connections to see. Everyone, at some point, probably experienced the tediousness of scrolling through a Facebook feed riddled with multiple shots of a Starbucks latte.
As the world grows more and more open to the idea of broadcasting nearly everything that happens in life, one app has proven that it is willing to take social media and sharing to the next level. Shorts, an app created by Paul Davidson, who launched the well-received Highlight app last 2012, is now available in the iOS app store.
What makes Shorts particularly unique is the fact that it does not rely on status updates like Facebook at all, nor does it rely on a select few uploaded photos like Instagram. Rather, the app allows users to broadcast the contents of their smartphone's Camera Roll to their connections. If one chooses to make their profile public, Shorts would allow users to practically show the entire contents of their phone's Camera Roll for the world to see.
Indeed, from a certain perspective, the prospect of people being able to look through a user's photos in a rather indiscriminate and completely unrestrained manner sounds insane. For Davidson, however, the hesitation that critics now feel about the new app is just a simple case of xenophobia.
"Most of the interesting social services that have emerged that people feel very comfortable with today pushed people a little bit outside of their comfort zones when they started," he said.
In a way, Davidson does have a point. After all, just a few years ago who would have thought that it would be completely acceptable to post pictures of one's children online? Or one's meals? Indeed, prior to the social media boom during the past few years, such practices were not commonplace at all. Now, however, they are considered the norm.
Besides, Davidson does assure that users would have full control about what pictures in the Camera Roll get broadcasted to one's connections. Plus, users would also have full control over how much strangers would be able to view from one's broadcast.
Regardless of the app's restrictions, however, and with the people, including pre-teens being open to broadcasting nearly everything that goes on in their lives, an app such as Shorts does carry a significant risk.
Then again, Shorts is not the most dangerous app that the developer has tested. In fact, it is actually a tamer version of Roll, an app that the team developed which automatically broadcasts everything in a user's Camera Roll without any notification. Of course, during its testing phase, Roll proved to be far too dangerous, predatory even.
But who knows? Davidson views Shorts as a means for people to create a close-knit mobile community that shares both intimate and mundane moments with each other freely. Maybe, within the next few months, Shorts becomes one of the world's leading social media platforms.
Of course, whether that happens or not would be completely up to users.
