Working Theorys

Working Theorys

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Background Social
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Background Social

Theory #42: on apps that let you tell me what you're up to without telling me what you're up to.

Anu Atluru
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Bharat Kilaru
May 31, 2024
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Most social products ask us to create original content, i.e. user-generated content, or UGC. On Twitter, you post just for Twitter. On Instagram, you post pics that you likely took with Instagram in mind. This is true in private and semi-private too. You take Snaps just for Snap. You write on Reddit just for the subreddit.

Background social products are different.

Background social apps take content that we already create elsewhere and use it to help connect us with friends and create fun moments along the way. This secondary UGC can be one of two kinds:

  1. Content that we actively create for another purpose or platform, i.e. what we traditionally think of as content — photos, videos, blogposts, messages, links.

  2. Content that we passively generate as we go about our lives, i.e. information or data that’s content-like — location data, music listening history, video watch history, stock portfolio performance, screen time itself.

Background social apps leverage this content and then try to add a…

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