At the intersection of social media and live streaming, there is Periscope. Not the conclusion you would’ve expected is it? Let’s dig a little deeper. Periscope is a way to live stream anything you do. Not only that, but you can interact with people from all over the world while doing it. Make new friends from across the pond, talk food with a guy in Pittsburgh, all these things and more are possible with this technology. It’s new in the arena of social media, launching only a wee bit ago in March 2015. With competition from rivals Meerkat and Facebook, someone seems to think there could be something to all this. It feels more personal than Google hangouts and reminds me of the college experience in general in how you can just walk up to anyone and start a conversation with them, even though it seems most of us don’t do that. The interface is simple and uses familiar elements to get you going. It can speed up your log-in by linking to your Twitter account. Or just drop your name and a username to open up a new look at the world. Here’s a less intimidating way for you to dip into a world of communicating with new people. Oh the possibilities.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/04/facebook-live-video-streaming-to-take-on-twitter-periscope.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/12/05/what-is-periscope-and-how-can-you-use-it-for-business-video-streaming/
As a user of Periscope, I really enjoy this app. I get to watch people live and get to see what they are doing in their lives. This is cool when watching people like Howie Mandel, who used to prank call people all the time on Periscope and would do this using suggestions that people send in in the comment section. He actually picked me once and tried to prank call my grandmom, but she didn’t pick up (sadly). But Periscope can be used to see what your friends are doing, what one of your favorite celebs is doing, or can be used to illegally watch a paper view fight, which is what most people try to do, but Periscope has been shutting that down. Periscope is starting to become big, and now websites like Facebook are copying them by letting celebs post live videos on their accounts. Its only a matter of time before Twitter starts doing that. But Periscope is an app that will definitely get bigger as time goes on.
I think this concept is very interesting. From what I’ve read it does seem like a version of twitter but just live streaming. The only question that I would pose is, being that apple already has such a good reputation with facetime why would they not add a similar feature. If apple looked into this hard they could probably cut into their business unless Periscope has some protective patents. Otherwise this is a very cool technology that definitely has more uses than just communicating with friends and family.
Upon further review I actually found out that apple has named periscope the app of the year. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/12/09/apples-app-year—periscope/76993102/
I really like the idea of Periscope, and actually have been using it for a few months now after a friend mentioned it to me over the summer when he was at a music festival. Seeing as though I couldn’t go because I had to work, but still wanted to experience the festival that the two of us had gone to for 3 consecutive summers, he had mentioned this app to me. Having never heard of it before, I decided to download it and, to my surprise, had really enjoyed it. It gave me the experience of being at the festival without actually being there (well, as close to the full experience as I could get while being 5 hours away). I liked it because it allowed me to keep up with all of my favorite bands in real time as it was going on, and had the option to look at many different users who were streaming at the same time, some who were even up close and in front of some of the major sets.
I think Periscope could have a great chance to catch on because it could have many potential uses. There is no other social media platform that is similar to this, which is what makes it so unique, and therefore appealing. This would make streaming events from a mobile device so much easier for the user, and I think it could be well reciprocated if it catches on and more people hear about it.
I think that the link to the Forbes article was interesting. I like when new technology has more of a purpose other than for a social setting. I feel like when technology can be used to improve business, like in the Forbes article, or the quality of life in general, it is a good use in time and resources with coming up with the technology in the first place. If this was used for a social setting only I would feel personally like my whole life was out there for everyone to see. I don’t think that I would ever be comfortable doing this, but I think that the social media fanatics will love it!