It’s been a few years since I gave Facebook the big ol’ combat boot. The lack of privacy, the company’s sleight-of-hand business model, the constant platform tweaks – it all prompted a principled stand against a company that embodies corporate surveillance, the commoditization of personal interactions, and the hijacking of the user experience. Add to that information bloat, and there really was nothing about the company or its platform that deserved support. But…
…it sure was nice to be able to stay in touch with all friends great and small, however casual the connection. By giving up Facebook, whose omnipresence is also a significant problem, I gave up on a dimension of human society that, with some wisdom, actually can be fun and enriching. And with that went connections that were nice to have. So, while waiting for something better to come, I bided my time until…what’s that? Could it be? Oh my, a real Facebook alternative! It was called Unthink, and the slick advertising promised privacy, user-owned content, and a transparent relationship between the private citizens and businesses using the platform. I was quite excited. But – you predicted the “but,” right?” – when a launch day for a Beta version of the platform finally arrived, the result wasn’t confetti and cheers. It was the dull, disappointing thud of a nice try. The interface design was okay, but the functionality was rather clunky. Glitches abounded, and there was much whirring and thrashing of hard drives. Unthink set up a Beta feedback blog, and quickly established the customer service pattern of no service at all: questions went unanswered, complaints went unacknowledged. People came knocking, but there was nobody home.
After a few short weeks, the website went down into the Hadean halls of cyberspace, never to reappear again. The only sign of Unthink’s brief existence is that feedback blog, which lingers on the Internet like a ghost too pathetic to bother with an exorcism. (Go ahead: read it, and weep. Or laugh. It’s a hilariously tragic example of bad customer service.)
Unthink was un-go. So much for a Facebook alternative.
That was in 2011. (Note: yes, I am aware of other platforms like Diaspora. They just didn’t gel with me.)
Earlier this year, I thought to myself, “self, it’s time to see if there’s something new out there.” And happy day, there was: MeWe. Ostensibly around since 2011, MeWe seems to be gaining some momentum. Its entire platform is based on privacy and security, user-owned content, no sharing of personal data with third-parties, and the absence of the kind of tracking technologies (from cookies to facial recognition) Facebook is fond of playing with. While MeWE is free to use, they’re upfront about their business model: “MeWe makes money the same way offline companies have always made money; by offering optional services that people actually want and benefit from. For starters, you get our great basic service sharing photos, videos, documents, chat, discussions, voice messaging, etc., and up to 8GB of storage, free. Then, and only if you want more, you can add up to 500GB of data storage; download helpful private group apps from the MeWe App Store (coming in 2015); print your pictures; select coupons; and choose from other cool choices designed for your entertainment.”
To borrow from soccer: gooooooaaaaaaaallllll!
Exciting! Except, of course, that it needed to be tested out. For real. Which I did. And…?
I like it. I really like it! The interface is simple and intuitive, there’s no advertising clutter, and it’s very much the user-centered experience I’ve been looking for.
- The main feed, called My World, only displays what I choose to see in addition to whatever I choose to post. So, friends’ post, and notices from the groups I belong to – both of which can be customized. The lack of algorithmic shenanigans that automatically adjusts or adds to the feed, is refreshing. Naturally, posts can be texts, photos, videos…the usual.
- There are no silly games, no pages, to clutter things up.
- Groups! More like old-school chat rooms, the groups are easy to find, join, or create. And any group you create can be set to private, public, or semi-public.
- MeWe integrates with Twitter, but not LinkedIn or Facebook on account of their bad privacy practices. I use Twitter, if you can call it that, and don’t really get it: but there you go – integration if you want it.
- In addition to groups, there’s a live chat feature as well as a private messaging system.
In a nutshell, MeWe has many of the features we like about social media, but with a streamlined interface stripped of the complex and contradictory controls that emerge in platforms for which privacy is an after-thought grafted onto a corporate data mining apparatus. (Try saying that last sentence 3 times fast; it’s fun at parties, and encourages drinking.)
With MeWe doing so many things right from a user experience standpoint, the remaining challenge is to attract users. Facebook’s omnipresence is a particular problem, because the investment people have put into building their social network and organizing their digital lives around it makes it hard to start from scratch. Sure, MeWe offers convenient tools to send invites to all your Facebook friends…but the next challenge is persuading people of the value that comes with replacing Facebook with MeWe. Mystifyingly, I’m met with indifference when I mention Facebook’s data mining and lack of privacy. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised: if pervasive government surveillance doesn’t worry people (because it’s a big scary world, aaaagh!), why worry about corporations greedily gobbling up every little bit of info about us? I mean, no one could possibly use that information for anything (*cough* stasi *cough*) bad given the right political environment, right?
In any case, the nutshell for using MeWe is this: come for the privacy and honest business model, and stay for the enjoyable, stress-free experience. Seriously. Try it. You might like it.
Just bring some friends along, ok?
PS: In the interests of disclosure, I didn’t get compensated or otherwise bribed to write up this write-up.
Frédérik is the Page’s Assistant Editor and resident art critic. He can be reached at fsisa@thefrontpageonline.com.