A history of Time
and why Time is better than “The Like”
The Idea
During my semester abroad in the USA in 2013, I saw once again the famous phrase by Andy Warhol on a wall of the university’s library that would change my way of thinking:
“In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes”.
In my head, it finally clicked: Time. On that day, I formed the idea to apply the concept of Time as a tool of interest within an app and build other products around It.
Goal
One of first goals at FashTime was to change the user’s’ mindset of how visual content is appreciated.
In other words, we wanted to get people to stop saying:
“I liked”
a certain photo, and have them start saying:
“I spent time on”
posted content.
FashTime brings back one of the oldest units of measure used to quantify interest and appreciation:
Time.
It is FashTime’s most interesting disruption. Instead of a nowadays meaningless “thumbs up” / “hearts” signal, users know how many seconds have been spent on their post (1? 2? 3?…15?)
Think in Seconds.
Time vs. Like
Why “The Like” sucks when talking about photo-video sharing on social media
- A Like is not fractionable (interest cannot be measured on a scale). Time is the real currency of Attention.
For example: I may like a visual content more than you do. However, the single “thumb-up” on Facebook or “heart” on Instagram put your interest and mine on the same level.
- A Like leads to “social media pressure” and is often put out of “pressure”. Time reduce the pressure from not being liked (enough).
For example (1): on the one hand, either I’m not sure about posting a content because it may not get too many likes or I post a content and find myself compulsively checking whether it is performing well or not. “Is there something wrong with me? Why don’t they like me?”. On the other hand, it’s not a surprise the quick mass success of IG stories: posting a story on IG is way less “stressful” since it’s about “being viewed” and no more about “being liked”.
For example (2): a good friend uploads a post, a Like is almost expected to be put. The other extreme might be represented by an ex-partner, to whom one is very unlikely to give a Like, no matter how “good” the post is.
- Likes are overused (or underused). Time democratizes interest.
For example: On the one hand, I may hit the like button wihout actually looking at the content or because I’m influenced by the number of likes on the post (hyper active user). On the other hand, I may actually like a content, spend Time on it but decide to not hit the like button (passive user).
- Likes can be bought easily. Time is not purchasable (Time is money).
For example: I can literally surf the web and trade likes for money — the market of likes-on-demand is huge and populated by lots of websites that offer this service — to fake my profile engagement (fake it until you make it) and meet todays’ socia media standards of coolness and popularity (the more likes the cooler).
Overall,
The Like is a distorted system of appreciation and not accurate.
Time & Fashion
Strengthening what has been said here, at FashTime we believed (and still do) Time and Fashion to be perfect together.
Fashion is not liking something. It’s more like paying attention to something, being interested in something. Time is key in Fashion. Time is what defines Fashion.
Time measures trends and attention (crucial concepts not only in fashion).
For example: If a person walks into a room, wearing an outfit, people will look at that person & spend time looking at the person. However, it is unlikely that people will stand up and say: “I like your outfit”. or “I don’t like your outfit”.
Let’s think in seconds.
I’m Marco and I shape purpose, vision, mission, culture at FashTime; Morever, I shape new ideas, conceptualize & manage products with a focus on the end user, manage the marketing campaign.
