Apps that spark joy
Original post: March 10, 2011
It’s very easy to complain that technology has been drifting us apart, and that’s why I love to show examples of how we can use it to bring us together:
1) Situationist app
By taking three easy steps you can bring extra-ordinary moments to your routine. First, when you login, you have the chance to choose which tasks you would like people to perform to you, and it can vary from hugging you for five seconds to discuss about the war. You may also add your own options. Then, you just wait and when you’re close enough to someone that is also using the application, you will receive a note with the task and the person’s picture. You have five minutes to perform and leave. And that’s it, your life just became a little bit more unpredictable.
2) Gift a stranger
As the name suggests, this platform lets you gift a stranger by providing you with a random address of someone around the world. To participate is easy as 1,2,3. Literally.
You can also check who received what, and I should tell you that is good to see how people can be altruistically generous sometimes!
3) Redstampapp
RedStamp is application that facilitates to the extreme the simple act of saying Thank You or making a compliment. It is also customizable and thoughtful even though if it is created through a screen.
With this application you can send notes, add your pictures, choose a style and send to anyone you want. And if you’re one of those who don’t value anything that is not in paper, for $1.29 you can send this person a postcard with your image, by mail.
4) Give a smile (September 17, 2011)
I’ve been in LA for a little bit more than one month now and I feel it is still soon to start with all the comparisons to NY. But… there’s one thing that I couldn’t not notice: People here DO smile to each other! True Fact!
It is not only normal to smile to strangers here, but they don’t avoid eye contact either! It’s really fantastic! I’ve even been practicing walking always with at least a half smile on my face, because it makes it much easier to turn on a full smile, anytime I need it! And it’s usually often!
But smiles are one of those things that you can’t never get tired of, right? So, what wasn’t my surprise when, sitting on my silent apartment, preparing to sleep, I found out about this amazing website that actually allows you to smile to strangers without even leaving the comfort of your couch!
It may look simple, but you don’t have idea about how many thoughts passed through my mind while I was making the shots! Like, I wanted to look authentically happy and giving a genuine smile, but if I smile too much I also look creepy. So between these two extremes there were an infinitude of variables, until I came up with these three smiley faces:
It also can recognizes if you’re not smiling, but can someone tell me with which part of my face I wasn’t smiling in this picture?
In any case, I’m really happy that I won’t have to beg for smiles anymore, as I did here! Nothing against that, it was an intervention really fun to make, but it’s so much better when you can extract one smile spontaneously… : D !