Currently the top anonymous messaging apps on the market are Secret and Whisper. Both are similar to that of a Twitter feed. What the founders of Truth created, was an anonymous messaging app that sends private messages to people in your contacts list. When you send a "truth," you are assigned an anonymous username and avatar (variety of spirited owls).
The founders hope because Truth only allows users to message phone contacts, this will stimulate acts of flirting and pranks amongst friends. Yet communicating anonymously will just encourage cyberbullying. This is where the problem lies. I believe if Truth becomes popular within high school and college communities, cyberbullying is inevitable.
Truth cofounder Ali Saheli tells Mashable, "Whisper and Secret are about broadcasting; you shout out anonymously, kind of like on Twitter. The concept of messaging phone contacts was more interesting to us" via: http://on.mash.to/1g7SDQ7.
This is a very interesting app. I agree that there is a chance of this causing an increase in cyberbullying, especially because the user is anonymous. It does have good intentions of bringing people together in hopes of increasing courtship but there is a major downside to keeping user's identities hidden.
ReplyDeleteContrary to this, the internet is so easily accessible and, although many sites don't make people anonymous, cyberbullying will happen if people want it to happen. Fake accounts are created, people use other accounts, and some people don't hid their identity at all and it still occurs. I don't think this app in particular will create any major change in the tendencies of people taking part in cyberbullying.