In the ever-evolving world of social media, it’s common to receive messages from friends asking you to join the hottest new apps. A recent example of this trend is Her Lapse, an app that allows users to take disposable camera-style photos and post them for friends to see. When Lapse was released, many students rushed to download it because they wanted to be part of the latest trend.
Senior Alia Sokol said, “Several friends texted me download links. It looked like fun so I decided to give it a try.”
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that these trends will not last long. “I just downloaded it because a friend told me to, but I haven’t used it yet,” said freshman Riley Shipley.
The buzz around a newly released app is exciting and stimulates engagement for a while, but its time on the home screen usually shortens as users tire of it and the next viral app gains attention.
Sophomore Sophia Cole said, “When I picked up ‘Lapse,’ I thought it was a little overhyped and I didn’t really understand the buzz around it.” This pattern repeats itself and is familiar to today’s teens.
Junior Dylan Shilpo said, “The hype around just about every new app we use today is just starting to trickle toward the end.”
Students looked at past popular apps such as Poparazzi, a photo-sharing network that posts to friends’ profiles, and BeReal, an app that encourages users to share authentic moments with daily notifications. I remember the example.
Cole said, “BeReal and Poparazzi had a similar story. I had BeReal for about a year, and Poparazzi was popular during quarantine, but ultimately they both fell apart. It’s gone.”
“I stopped using BeReal because it got boring and no one really used it,” said senior Gabriela Lara. Other examples include Gas, Tbh, Wishbone, and Houseparty, among other examples of once-popular apps that are now forgotten.
These trends are in contrast to apps that have remained popular, such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok. Why do these apps continue to maintain user attention while other social media platforms quickly lose their hype?
On the technical side, app developers need to incorporate certain design models to create a platform that is attractive and interesting to users in the long run. A paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) found that an endless stream of content is important for engagement, and that if users find scrolling too easy (not enough content), they are likely to lose interest. I am reporting. If it’s too difficult (too much content), you’ll get frustrated.
Many new apps fail to provide enough content to keep users interested, leading to boredom. On platforms like YouTube and TikTok, users can scroll for hours without ever getting to the end. IJERPH reported that “flow comes with a sense of time distortion, and this is exactly what many developers of social media apps feel.” […] The goal is to be so immersed that you forget time and space while using a platform or app. ”
Additionally, Lapse is invite-only. This means you can’t use the app unless you send the link to five friends. This technique amplifies the sense of “herd mentality.” In other words, the human tendency to be influenced by the majority makes people feel obligated to download apps because they don’t want to feel left out.
Another reason these apps have become so popular so quickly is that they tend to be unoriginal. Expectations are high when apps are widely distributed and discussed among peers, but long-term interest is diminished because these platforms rarely produce their own material.
New student Leila Semichi said, “I think Snapchat and Instagram are the most original apps. These days, every app is just trying to make the ‘ultimate app,’ so they end up copying each other. , it becomes boring.”
Similarly, junior Anjali Polu said, “New apps have to compete with existing apps, so we copy and paste different models, such as stories and short video formats. I noticed it right away and deleted it after about a week. This makes it easier to use social media like Instagram and Snapchat as our main sites for communication and posting because we’re already familiar with them.” No one wants to jump between 10 different platforms, so apps like Lapse lose even more popularity because they have to compete with existing popular apps.
Apparently, most teenagers weren’t interested in Lapse, and its initial popularity quickly waned in the weeks following its release. So the next time you’re invited to download the latest app, consider whether you want to delete it within a few days.