Today: Mar 29, 2024

Periscope app: Hit or Miss?

Melissa Nuñez – General Assignment Reporter

Scrolling through her newsfeed on Vine, Allison Mulcrone, senior Media Studies major, said she saw a new app her friends were using that caught her attention, after downloading Periscope she discovered that she could interact with them on a more personal, direct level.

“Vine is more fun and creative. They respond back, so [Periscope] is very personal and that is why I keep going on there,” said Mulcrone. “I follow people and they follow me, so when I [Periscope] one of the people I follow will go on and come into my streams and talk to me, so it is kind of a cool relationship.”

Mulcrone said she will stream herself once or twice a week with various casual topics and that is when she starts making personal connections.

“I have a topic of conversation, for example, after I saw the movies Star Wars I did, ‘Spoiler Free Review,’” said Mulcrone. “Most of the people that follow me, follow me because they like my interaction with them and people will just kind of come in and have no idea who I am, then we will be like, ‘let’s be buddies, let’s talk.’”

Chris Bockiaro, senior Media Studies major, said he was familiar with Periscope because he saw his favorite celebrities frequently tweeting about it, when celebrities Aubrey O’Day and Shannon Bex of Dumb Blonde were doing a Q&A from the app he decided to download it.

“They wanted to talk with some fans, answer some questions about their album, and stuff like that for their album release party,” said Bockiaro. “It was more personal than if they were just sitting at a keyboard typing the answers on Twitter because they were able to fully express themselves and not be fully confined to 140 characters. It was nice to get to see facial expressions and really interact with the questions.”

Bockiaro said even though he enjoyed the overall functionality of the app through Dumb Blonde’s live stream, he deleted Periscope soon afterward. Bockiaro said his reason for uninstalling the app was because he had no daily use for it.  

“Ultimately, because the celebrities that I wanted to talk to were done and they actually have not used it since,” said Bockiaro. “So if I saw others celebrities using it and they were doing it for a good purpose or something exciting then I might re-download it, but I do not really have a current reason to. I do not feel like live streaming my life; it is not that exciting. I think it is great if you have something that you want to talk about and you have a specific audience. But just for an everyday social tool, I do not really see it like that.”

According to Periscope.com since being launched in late March 2015, Periscope has reached 10 million users as of Aug. 2 and was rated Apple Store’s 2015 App of the year.

Mulcrone added she cannot predict if Periscope will be a hit but she certainly thinks it has too much to potential to be a miss.

“I do not know if it is going to be the new big thing, but I definitely think it is going to gain popularity in our generation because it is so interactive and it is really unique,” said Mulcrone. “I mean, I can go to France right now. I can go on that map, click a city in France and just live through someone’s eyes and that is really unique.”

Photo Credit: Periscope App Screenshot

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