Technology Thoughts

Path - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

What is Path?

Path is a new social media app available for iPhone and Android users (sorry BlackBerry owners). The app allows you to share “moments” with your friends that include location check ins, photos, the music you’re listening to, the people you’re with, and the thoughts you’re thinking. You can watch the demo, advertisement, and download the app here. 

What’s new and great about Path?

The user interface is absolutely stunning. It’s easy to create a new moment, see the activity on your profile, and view someone else’s Path. While Facebook and Twitter are more complex, Path is simple and easy to understand. The app also combines a lot of features from other popular social media sites which gives Path the “all in one” feel.

So, what’s not the like?

The good things about Path are also the not so great things about Path. Since it combines features from Twitter, Last.fm Facebook, Foursquare, and Instagram, it’s essentially another app that does that same thing as other apps you’re probably already using. As I’ve been using Path, I’ve thought to myself “These people can get the same information on Foursquare and see these pictures on Instagram.” The only feature that is unique to Path is its asleep and awake feature. Users can tell the app when they’re going to sleep and wake up, which is then visible to friends following their Path. 

The bottom line

Path is a great app - it’s nice to find everyone’s information in one place rather than checking four different sites for the same information. But it does get repetitive. If you’re active on social media, you will see the same posts from the same people several times. You’ll also notice the poor sleeping habits of your friends. Path may get better once more people get on it. It’s fun at first but the cool factor seems to fade quickly when you realize how repetitive it is.

I hope that Path becomes more interesting in the future but I doubt it’ll be anytime soon due to the booming popularity of apps like Foursquare, Instagram, and Twitter. But we’ll see where it goes. Remember how long it took Twitter to catch on? 

My Digital New Years Resolutions

1. Get off Facebook. And get people to do it with me.
Let’s face it, Facebook is fading fast. Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Path, and Pinterest have all becoming very popular social networking sites (especially towards the end of 2011). The only thing that’s keeping me on Facebook is my friends that are still on. Once they stop posting content that’s relevant to mr, I’ll leave too.

2. Get people to actually use Google +.
I’ll admit that I don’t use Google + often. I don’t because unlike Facebook, not enough people are using it. Google + is cleaner and much more organized than Facebook will every be. Plus, doesn’t the +1 button seem much more appealing than a “like” button?

3. Ditch the BlackBerry.
I am one of the only people that still admits to bbming. I’m sick of not having a touch screen keyboard and going through several unnecessary menus to complete simple tasks. Apps are taking over the mobile word and BlackBerry’s App World couldn’t be more frustrating.

4. Learn to code.
I’ve had very negative experiences coding. I took a class to learn Java but had a terrible professor that made me hate coding. That summer, I had an internship gone wrong and yet again, I had to code. The more internships I apply to and the more I explore technology, the more I realize I really need to know how to code. A friend of mine told me about codeyear.com, a website that sends you weekly interactive coding lessons. Check it out, it can’t hurt.

5. Stop using technology as much.
Yes. Take digital timeouts. Take a walk, go outside, just do something without worrying about texting, Twitter, and checking in on Foursquare. It’ll be there when you get back, I promise.