Plag New Social Network Spreads Like a Virus
I’m currently fascinated with a new social network that is based on the mechanics of a working plague. I’ve been fiddling with it for about a week now and I continue to be confused, delighted by the experience.
It works simply enough. Let’s say that you giggled profusely at a little video you made of your, cat (God forbid). So you create a gif of your little kitty and create a post on Plag** (as its known.) It is then sent on to 4 users near you… near, as in, close to you in proximity. Yes? And then, like Tinder, you rate it, swipe it up – and it moves on to another four users near them. Swipe it down and the viral streak on your line ends. You can also tap the post and comment about it – which can sometimes be pretty interesting reads. Make sense? It isn’t a wall based social experience, you are just receiving, then spreading or killing ideas depending.
Here’s where it gets really fascinating. These data I am showing you below are available for every single post that drops into your lap… and that is why I’m fascinated.
And the Plag** developers have just added the ability to send surveys into the cauldron now as well. Curious how many have done a random act of kindness in the last 48 hours? Ask. Wondering what everyone’s opinion is of the latest Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage? Light that Molotov cocktail and drop it in the hatch. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
The problem with this solution is that it turns up the absolute worst content the world has to offer. I mean by that, not just the cat smiling photo, but also the truly vapid stuff that dribbles out of Reddit and makes the rounds on Facebook. But, the ability to watch the post circle the glob and see the results of what you sent into the wild is fascinating from a scientific (or highly UN-scientific?) standpoint. I plan to play a little bit, and maybe I’ll report the results here in a bit.