If you're like me, you have a bunch of randos as Facebook friends even though you don't care about their cousin Bertha's wedding or the cliché trip they took to the Bahamas. It's too much effort to unfriend all these people, but you're sick of missing your bestie's new cover photo because Patricia from psych keeps posting links to The Odyssey (Ed. note: You're the worst kind of human). This is where the new social media app Babble comes in.
Babble creates a highly customized feed. Say goodbye to spam on your social media page—with Babble, you only see the people and posts you want. For every post you make, you can specify the audience (good friends to everyone), post reach (five blocks to worldwide) and time frame (self–destruct in three hours, or stay in place forever). You can pre–select your audience, creating as intimate or all–inclusive of an experience as you want. This customization creates a comfortable space where people can post freely, "babbling" about midterms, downtowns, family reunions— really anything.
Babble was founded this year by Ethan Rosenbaum—a recent Penn grad (SAS '16), kick–ass entrepreneur and one of the rare people I enjoy talking to before I've had my morning coffee. He described some of the many ways Penn students can weave Babble into their lives. "3 a.m., you can specify you want to get coffee with friends within five blocks," he said. "If you want to throw a pre– game, you can only let your good friends know in Philly. If you have an embarrassing video or something funny that happened to you, you can send it to your best friends nationwide...if you're strolling through Rittenhouse, you can pull up the location–based feed and see who else is around."
I love Babble and not just because of the scenarios Ethan described. Posting on Facebook can feel like posting into a void. It's massive, impersonal and you never really know who's viewing your posts. Babble takes a lot of the pressure off. You pick exactly who sees what, which creates a laid– back environment where people can post openly and often. Because the network is smaller, there's less focus on likes and more focus on posting whatever, whenever.
This app is for you if you want to share a lot but not with a massive network, wonder which of your friends are nearby and are sick of being spammed on social media. There's no need to unfriend Patricia from Psych or juggle 85 GroupMes—download Babble instead.
