By Rebekah Anne

When I think of social media apps the top three that come to mind right away are Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram but there are many more and so many more I use on a daily basis. If I had to make a top five social media app list, here’s what it would be…

 1. Snapchat 

 2. Instagram 

 3. Bereal 

 4. TikTok 

 5. Facebook

I use all of these apps on a daily basis and enjoy each of them for very different reasons. Snapchat is a fun way to see what my closest friends are up to. ( I am an avid lover of the private story feature)  Instagram and Facebook allow me to see what a larger pool of people are up to. TikTok provides me with humor and Bereal is somewhere I go when I want to see what MY people are doing and see a more unfiltered look at things. Now I’m starting to feel like all social media is blurring the lines and becoming the same. 

Snapchat and TikTok just come out with their own versions of Bereal, “TikTok Now”, and a filter on Snapchat that takes front and back camera pictures at the same time. Instagram came out with “close friends” in 2018 to compete with Snapchat private stories which were added in  2013. Facebook and Instagram added stories in 2017 to compete with Snapchat stories and Instagram added reals in 2019 to compete with TikTok. 

I bet that was hard to keep up with… because all of these apps but one have practically the same features, can you guess what the one app that doesn’t have all these? Bereal. I started my Bereal account in spring 2022 and thought it was such a new and creative way to approach social media. There are no videos, no stories, no liking, and it was private (meaning you could not have a public account). It’s vastly different than most social media. When I saw that TikTok and Snapchat added their own versions, I honestly got annoyed the same way I did when Instagram came out with reels. I personally cannot stand Instagram reels the same way I can’t stand that TikTok is now telling me to post on “TikTok Now”. 

I get why social media companies make these decisions, it’s similar to store brand Oreos and brand name Oreos, brand competition. Social media apps have competitors and need to keep up to date and on-trend to keep the app relevant, personally, I feel that Twitter isn’t as popular because it doesn’t follow all the new trends as we see Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok do. 

While social media is ever-changing and it seems as if there is a new app or features on current apps weekly, some good in my opinion, and some not so good. It is still important to note these changes and recognize how intertwined these apps are.  I’m sure in due time TikTok Now will have the same feeling as Instagram stories, but I don’t think I will ever be a user of it just like I’m not a user of  “ close friends” on Instagram.