SAN FRANCISCO, April 30 ― It’s like MySpace but with a Gen Z twist. A new “old school”-style social network called NoSpace puts the focus on greater personalisation. Scheduled to launch in June, the new platform already has 500,000 subscribers on its waiting list.
The creator of NoSpace isn’t hiding the fact that this new creation pays tribute to the current trend for Y2K nostalgia. Already a major phenomenon in recent film and fashion, the love of everything from the noughties is now spreading to social media. Tiffany Zhong developed NoSpace, while drawing inspiration from the iconic MySpace social network that defined the noughties. The goal of NoSpace is to put the user back at the center of the social media experience, by enabling them to fully personalise their profile. Through colours, fonts and backgrounds, users can indicate what they are “watching, eating, reading, listening to IRL” to reflect their personality.
Nostalgia is a tool of seduction for NoSpace
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Nostalgia plays a key role in NoSpace’s communication campaign. By taking its inspiration from MySpace, the social network is playing on the curiosity of young people who didn’t live through that era and want to discover what the web was all about at that time. What’s more, NoSpace cultivates this retro dimension by integrating emblematic MySpace features into its offering, such as the “top 8” closest friends, and the ability to share the music one is currently listening to.
NoSpace also differentiates itself from other social media through its emphasis on an engaged and supportive community. Users are invited to interact with each other in a positive and constructive way. The “boost” feature ― similar to a like on Facebook or a heart on Instagram ― is intended to be “fun,” not “to power-rank each other’s content,” Zhong explained to Bustle. “It feels like a game. People love leveling up. You get unlimited boosts… Everyone can feel special.”
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In the opinion of the creator of this new social media, algorithms don’t help people reach out and connect to one another: “All these other apps these days, it’s just algorithmic. A lot of posts just get pushed down if you don’t get engagement,” she explained to Bustle. “Remember how fun the internet was before all the algos and ads?” reads the app’s description in the AppStore.
By isolating ourselves in our own social bubbles, social media isn’t that social anymore. “Loneliness is increasing because of a variety of reasons,” she explains. “We don’t have as much to talk about with our IRL friends anymore, because everyone watches different content. It’s not like we have the same Sunday shows, or the same shows that drop the same episodes every week. … It feels lonely to be in a world where we’re just watching our own content, or our own personalised feed of content and videos, instead of connecting with others,” she says. “Socialising is so much more important than ever. It doesn’t exist anymore.” ― ETX Studio
