Isn’t it funny how it’s called ‘social media’ but nowadays it seems as though there’s very little socialising involved? We curate a perfect photo, finish it off with a flattering filter, craft an hilarious/poignant observation to fit in the character length, learn the current viral choreography, and we put our words, images and videos out into the world and wait for the likes, the follows and the emoji-fuelled comments to come pouring in. And then we do it all over again. And again…
Don’t get us wrong, there are lots of great things about all the popular social media platforms, and we can’t tell you how much time we spent on various apps during lockdown (well, we can but we don’t want to share those screen time reports with anyone), but sometimes it can feel as though it’s more about the content, rather than the connection.
That’s not how it works with Yubo.
At Yubo, it’s all about friends, not followers. It’s a social media platform that focusses on live-streaming – meaning users can broadcast in real-time and their friends can tune in and share in the experience, whether that means that you chat about some burning topic, watch a film together, play video games, learn dance routines, practice yoga, study – basically, whatever you want to do. It provides a platform that allows you to build genuine connections and authentic friendships, rather than #likeforlike and #followforfollow.
Take Angelica and Mjay, for example.
Angelica, from Shepherd’s Bush, and Mjay, from Barnet, have lived less than 25-minutes away from each other all their lives, but they only made friends when they’d both joined a livestream on Yubo and discovered their shared passions. Now, they’re best friends, have helped each other through lockdown life, and they’re looking forward to cementing their friendship in real life too.
“I used to think I was quite introverted, but Yubo has really helped me to open up and given me more confidence - it's really helped me to be myself and meet Angel, who I consider one of my best friends, even though we’ve never met in person,” says Mjay.
“For me, I always felt like there was a stigma attached to meeting people online, for a start you never know who’s a catfish or not!” she continues. “I was very wary until I met Angel, but meeting her has opened my eyes to making friendships online and I felt safe communicating and streaming on Yubo. I never thought I would make a friend during lockdown but Angel is one of my closest friends, I'm so much more open to making friendships online now I have had such a good experience.”
“I feel exactly the same,” said Angelica. “Yubo is not judgy, anything goes - there are just so many different ways to connect and socialise, I've genuinely connected with people on topics I really care about and for me, that is so important. It means more to me than say just video calling or texting. It's what makes the platform what it is.”
And at the end of the day, whatever social platform is our favourite, what we’re looking for is that connection with other people – people we can laugh with and have those big conversations with and debate with and understand. Yubo gives you the space to find those friendships and build those relationships, and it’s putting the ‘social’ back into social media.