The new social networking app exclusively designed for college campuses

Colleges are hot spots for social media and networking. New social networking applications and platforms foster new friendships and allow people, in a diverse community of individuals, to interact with as many members of their community, at least in theory. Personally I appreciate and support the idea of such a framework. Facilitating people to go beyond their existing social circles to discover and identify with new people in college is most certainly a great endeavor. Friendsy, developed by two Princeton students Mike Pinsky and Vaidhy Murthi, is a 2013 innovation that seeks to fill this unique niche in higher education social media. Every other week, I will explore an innovative application to highlight some of the most intriguing developments in tech.

The app is similar to Tinder and Yik Yak, but the distinguishing element is that it is limited to members of the particular college community since it requires users to register with their .edu email address. This provides a safer and more real network of individuals, greatly minimizing the chances of ‘randos’ and focusing on connecting the online to an in-person relationship.

Although the social networking app is developed to support communication and friendships between people, I feel there is a certain barrier of discomfort that prevent the other similar apps from being as ‘social’ as they claim to be for college students. That barrier may well deter friendships. It is a barrier characterized by discomfort or unease that may arise while approaching new people of the same college community, via a social networking app, based on their appearance or interests and affiliations.

Friendsy users have access to each other’s profiles that include pictures, class year, gender, major and affiliation. Users can anonymously express interest in another user where the other user can only find out if the match is mutual. The three options available to users are described as ‘friends, hookup or date’.

Since people already tend to have an existing social circle of friends, the idea of approaching someone else you may find interesting who also possibly has an existing circle of friends, can feel discomforting or embarrassing. You may come across as a ‘loner’ or a ‘creep’ in the process of wanting to get to know someone you’ve never met, through such a platform. Of course you find interesting people all the time on a college campus but you don’t want to be that individual who people tell their friends about in the middle of the conversation saying, “This random kid just sent me a request”.

Although, we would like to believe that college campuses are host to a set of broad and open minded individuals, the idea of clique formation can prevent one from taking a step towards forging a new friendship at a later stage in college outside of those social networks. You may feel conscious or unwelcome about reaching out to someone in your junior year maybe since he/she already has a set of friends.

Friendsy smoothly dismantles this barrier of discomfort.

With the anonymous request form in place, the app can do little harm. Since one must actually seek the person who sent him/her a request on the basis of hints provided, look up the individual’s profile and interests and if that person seems interesting, only then send a request, the element of discomfort vanishes. Unlike Facebook where you may get a friend request from someone you may barely know and end up accepting as courtesy or on the basis of mutual friends, with Friendsy you discover the individual yourself and express an interest in him/her as you respond. That’s where the real mutual feeling arises. With Friendsy, it’s not about ‘approving’ a request; it’s more about sending a request back. In this sense Friendsy is the least arbitrary and as real as it gets, when it comes to establishing new bonds over social media platforms. It is well worth the download.