Meet the weirdest social network ever

folarin okunola

June 26, 2015 2:35 PM

It’s a photo app that’s weird and anarchic, full of bizarre stickers and comic effects. Users can expect to have their photos modified and then reposted by others.

Screenshot from the Fork social network site.

Rage faces, Obama’s “not bad” face, something that looks like Dick Butt, bombs, knives, and that Uber map pin. Those are just some of the things that make a new social app in China stand out from the crowd.

Sources reveal that it’s a photo app that’s weird and anarchic, full of bizarre stickers and comic effects. Users can expect to have their photos modified and then reposted by others.

The social network is called Fork.

According to sources the app fits in perfectly with China’s growing diao si culture. The term is a slang word for “loser”, but in recent years it has morphed to describe young people who are underdogs and oddballs.

It’s a very loose term for a person who feels left behind by the Chinese economic miracle that has created a huge gap in income inequality. In a nation that’s still conservative and battered by constant propaganda to be “harmonious” and not rock the boat, diao si comes with only the merest patina of rebel spirit.

Fork is like Instagram blended with the stickers from WeChat and Line, with a soupçon of silliness and a dash of diao si. Importantly, the stickers are not cute and sanitized like you find in most messaging or photo apps – they’re edgy and full of memes and in-jokes.

Source: Tech In Asia.

folarin okunola