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Ed Sheeran presses play on a new era with the release of his latest single ‘Azizam’ on 4th April 2025. Available on CD, 7” and DSPs

Get ready to immerse yourself in the enchanting world of "Azizam." A Persian term of endearment that means "my dear"... read more
And most of all—Facebook!
My life networked in Social Media. I am the type of person who writes my thoughts and updates people close to my heart. With Social Media, lines of communication have redirected from actual phone calls and meet-ups to virtual relationships. Such is the Social Media revolution. Odds are you have more than 300 friends on each site to track. For most of us, this is a great advantage in increasing social life or for whatever purpose that we network.
But then, are there days that you think of comparing your social media life to your actual life? Sometimes, I feel that Facebook is just a glorified phone book. I mean, c’mon, a person can’t have a thousand friends in real life. Chances are, most of our social media friends are those we exchange raised eyebrows with or a simple obligatory smile to at the jeepney when meeting in actual real life—and these are the same people we interact with, whose status updates we like and who, in the virtual world, can seem as if we are the closest of friends.
I miss the times that I will just update people who really matter in my life. Sometimes, I hesitate posting at Facebook as there are just some things in my life that are intended for a particular group of small people and need not to be broadcasted all over the world. It goes both ways, too. I want to track people who are so close to me, I couldn’t care less of status updates from people I barely know. Sadly, I cannot do that easily in Facebook or on any social media platform.
According to Robin Dunbar, 150 is our magic number--- this is the theoretical limit to the number of connections that one can MEANINGFULLY track at any time. So, how, I ask you, can we do this in our multitude of “FRIENDS” in Social Media?
Enter Path—a lightweight social networking app I discovered a month ago that limits your number of friends to our magic number of 150. It is a much more elegant and personalized way to keep track of our closest friends—a far cry from Facebook. If you hate Facebook’s timelines because it seems your life is super exposed to the point of feeling being intruded, then this app is for you. It is a continuous timeline that includes: music, comments, locations, photos, videos—all in one.
Path, according to Apple’s App Store is a smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love—your thoughts, the music you’re listening to, where you are, who you’re with, when you wake up and when you sleep, and beautiful high quality photos and videos.
More reasons for trying out Path:
1. The timeline is awesome, gorgeous and elegant.
For non-techie people like me, I am wowed with Path's interface. Pulling down the screen will show you posts or “moments” as it goes live with the time it’s posted plus it has a cute clock on the top right. I think it started the cover photo thing before Facebook (correct me if I’m wrong) and the small profile photo. With this interface in my phone, I feel like I can create my own Vogue-like profile (pictures are print-screened from my own Path, so please bear with me.. )
I have one of the smoothest and easiest experiences in updating moments. I don’t have to wait for a timer-like button in uploading pictures or videos. It just pops out. At the bottom left of the screen, there's a plus (+) sign that when clicked will give you options on what moment you will post. You swipe to the right and you are directed to the app’s options. Swipe to the left and you see your friends. And because you can view everything in the timeline, you don’t have to click each photo or video to view them. Each image has a resolution that is clearly seen in the timeline. It’s convenient, cool and fast!
You can also respond to moments with a photo or a video. It’s much more entertaining than liking a post or just plain comment on it. It’s much more interactive and creative to respond with relatable photos or actually videoing yourself to document the reaction!
2. It has its own built-in variation of Instagram! (source)
Instagram is a hugely popular photo-sharing app that was the top app on the Apple App Store last year used by more than 14 million people — and for good reason, because it's so easy to share photos and comes with cool camera lenses.
3.More Variety to Post Reactions.
If you feel that a post deserves more than a “LIKE”, well, here in Path, you can frown at a status. You can also smile, laugh, wink, love and gasp! This may seem such a small thing to some but these cute emoticons sure keep us entertained. Emoticon-lover as I am, it sure has me hooked.
4.Easy tagging and sharing
Every time you add a moment, you can tag people easily by tapping a noticeable section at the lower left-hand of the screen. It gives suggestions based on the Path friend that you interact with the most so you don’t have to search and scroll down to find their names through hundreds of people.
Conveniently, at the lower right hand of the screen you can then tag your location. You don’t have to go to Foursquare to post another update on where you are.
And for those who like to share these moments on public networks like Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and Facebook, you can easily check-in, upload photos and videos, blog and tweet DIRECTLY from one app—Path.
5.Best for your Small Personalized Network.
Adding friends is selecting through your phone book, Facebook and address book so you can choose who your closest friends are. As stated in the introduction of this article and backed up by Robin Dunbar’s theory, we just cannot physically track 500 friends or whatever your Facebook number is. Focusing on a small number of people gives you the avenue to deeply interact with each one.
Each moment is relatable because these people you add in your network understand your moments. Say for example you post a picture of your baby. In Facebook or any other social media networks, people who don’t know you that well will tend to just conclude this as another ordinary baby picture. But family from other parts of the world or a friend in Dubai understands how much love you have for your little one, and they share that love, too and actually urges you to post more.
So, I say, this app makes you feel more in touch with your closest friends and family than have a loose connection with people you barely know.
6.Music Buddy
This is one of my most favorite features in Path. When posting about what I’m listening (I tend to let my closest friends know what music I’m listening because I express myself through songs’ lyrics too), the App basically searches instantly what you are currently listening to iTunes or your music player. You don’t have to scroll or search for the music you’re listening to in any other application. Path does it for you!
7.Sleep Tracker
There is a button in Path that lets you update when you will go to sleep and when you are awake. It tracks the number of hours you have slept and has cute morning messages.
Basically, this is not just an alarm clock or a lame attempt to let everyone know even your sleeping patterns. It actually pays to be aware if your contact is asleep or not so that you will know if you are ignored or not.
8.It never leaves my phone
For those who use their smartphones more than their computers in Internet access, Path is just perfect. It’s an all-in-one social media interaction and you feel like you don’t have to sign in to every social media account just to update. Plus, once it’s in your timeline, you can access and view past moments even without internet connection.
In this generation when no one seems to care about intimate connection with family and close friends, this app is really a fresh welcome. It has let me share wonderful moments with those I really care about without forcing me to dive into extensive settings just to make it work. It understands what so many of us have missed—that the key to a meaningful connection is just simplicity. This app allows us to get the complexities of technology out of the way and allow us to do what we wanted to do in the first place for social media networking--- share with those people who matter.
Path is available for download in the iPhone App Store. It is a free application and happens to be one of the best new iPhone apps in 2011.
Path is available for iPhone and Android users.
thisbe.ara
Editor-in-Chief
iSTORYA.NET
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