Snapchat for Internet Friends

• Isaiah Turner and Ben Pasternak are two teenagers that have developed an iOS App called Monkey. 
• similar to Omegle and Chatroulette, but is still friendly to younger crowds. 
• The app begins by asking to connect to your contacts, then your age, gender and then to enable your camera, microphone and notifications. (It is an extremely simple and easy set up)
• Future updates will eventually include chat through the app and several discovery features based on different categories.
• Pasternak describes Monkey saying, “The way I look at it is Snapchat’s for your real-life friends and Monkey is for your Internet friends.” Monkey’s popularity is growing at a rapid pace.
• in about five weeks the app has acquired 215,000 users and holds a spot as of January 16 in the top 25 list for social media apps. 
• You can read the whole article from Mashable here Forget Facebook, forget Snapchat: Teens are doing it themselves

Isaiah and Ben started out as Internet friends before they began developing their app and eventually living together. I completely agree with the couple points they make on the difference between real-life and Internet friends. One point they made is how in real-life your friends can start gossip or drama because everyone is connected and in contact, while with your Internet friends that isn’t the case at all. Internet friends don't have connections with your other friends and have no way of spreading rumors or any personal information about you. Ben Pasternak said, “With Internet friends, you can be whoever you want to be, and I think Monkey is really pushing that.” I agree with Pasternak because of personal experience. I have made Internet friends on several social media platforms including Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Omegle, and Facebook. Some of the friendships I made through the Internet stayed on those apps and then others I became friends with in real-life and got to travel to a new place. Making friends over the Internet is less stressful because you don’t have the pressure to be a certain person; It’s very relaxing and I feel free to be whoever I want to be and talk about anything. I think the Monkey app could be a great new social media platform as long as it doesn’t become inappropriate like Omegle and Chatroulette did. It is an app made for teens by two teens. Acquiring Internet friends is becoming way more popular, so maybe this app could be ranked with the top social media platforms someday.