Facebook, while originally pitched as a place to connect with “friends,” has turned into a behemoth of a tech company that, I believe, has lost its core values. Nowadays the idea of a “Facebook friend” has become virtually meaningless, as just over 20% of Facebook users have greater than 500 “friends” on the platform — either the users are incredibly popular, or the value of the connections has decreased. I definitely believe it’s the latter. On Twitter, though it still falls under the social media umbrella, the mission is slightly different — “to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers.” Unlike Facebook, the use of Twitter is not necessarily connection based, but the audience of the posts on the platform is still massive, and this is by design. Twitter is used to tell the world what you’re thinking at a given moment, often getting used for breaking news or just random thoughts from random users. Though it works well for what it is intended for, I still believe there should be an in-between product offering — somewhere where users can post their thoughts and feelings, but only for a small select group of individuals.
Enter Path, a social media app that initially capped a user’s connections at 50. While I guess this increased the validity of the connections on the platform, the company closed its doors in late 2018. More recently, launched just last week, Cocoon looks to pick up from where Path left off — but with a slightly different focus. While Path was a social network (just with a capped user count), Cocoon describes itself as anything but a social network. Co-founder and ex-Facebook employee Alex Cornell says, “The main thing with a network is like that people aren’t necessarily all connected to one another, it’s asymmetrical so my friends aren’t friends with your friends and when I post a photo, you’re seeing comments from people you don’t know.” This creates a weird dynamic between people you want to be seeing and people you don’t know or don’t want to see. Cocoon looks to fill the void between posting thoughts and the true connections Facebook (or Path) once set its sights on. By creating a closed-off group to which users opt in, the company hopes its users will utilize Cocoon as their one-stop hub for connecting with their closest friends and family. This seems to fix the disconnected nature of social networking platforms.
My worry is about the competition surrounding Cocoon. In my own experience, most of the communication I have with close friends and family members is through group chats in Apple’s own iMessage on the iPhone. Though I really do like the user interface of the Cocoon app and find it to be an interesting product filling a niche I once saw to be unfilled, I do not see a reason why someone like me would switch from my iMessage group chat to the Cocoon app just to have a “dedicated” place for keeping up with family and friends — my group chat seems dedicated enough.
Enter Path, a social media app that initially capped a user’s connections at 50. While I guess this increased the validity of the connections on the platform, the company closed its doors in late 2018. More recently, launched just last week, Cocoon looks to pick up from where Path left off — but with a slightly different focus. While Path was a social network (just with a capped user count), Cocoon describes itself as anything but a social network. Co-founder and ex-Facebook employee Alex Cornell says, “The main thing with a network is like that people aren’t necessarily all connected to one another, it’s asymmetrical so my friends aren’t friends with your friends and when I post a photo, you’re seeing comments from people you don’t know.” This creates a weird dynamic between people you want to be seeing and people you don’t know or don’t want to see. Cocoon looks to fill the void between posting thoughts and the true connections Facebook (or Path) once set its sights on. By creating a closed-off group to which users opt in, the company hopes its users will utilize Cocoon as their one-stop hub for connecting with their closest friends and family. This seems to fix the disconnected nature of social networking platforms.
My worry is about the competition surrounding Cocoon. In my own experience, most of the communication I have with close friends and family members is through group chats in Apple’s own iMessage on the iPhone. Though I really do like the user interface of the Cocoon app and find it to be an interesting product filling a niche I once saw to be unfilled, I do not see a reason why someone like me would switch from my iMessage group chat to the Cocoon app just to have a “dedicated” place for keeping up with family and friends — my group chat seems dedicated enough.
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