Seems there is a trend with these social media companies to limit their products rather than provide everything. Twitter: character limit, Snapchat: limited time, Slingshot: give and take or nothing. The first two were successful, we will see about the third. I wonder what this says about our current culture, that we need artificial restraints to receive enjoyment.
Another ridiculously limiting app: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/18/5820948/9-questions-about-yo-you-were-embarrassed-to-ask 2) That's it? Yes.You establish a username. Then a friend who also uses Yo can select your username inside his app and you will receive a push notification reading: "Yo" and featuring audio of a voice stating "Yo."
Yo Yo insomniasexx what's your yo name. I have no friends on the app.
I don't have the app. I just cannot bring myself to download and use something this stupid. Do you actually have it?
There is something to be said about the things that can be created when limitations are imposed. There is a great documentary film called The Five Obstructions where two filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth, place insane limitations on the technical process in order to force creativity. The results are incredibly interesting. In terms of social media and apps, it's not about the creative process as much as it is about getting users to actually use these services and solve a "problem". Twitter was a response to blogs - 99% of blogs were long winded, rambling, pieces of shit that no one read or had time to read. By limiting the character count it forced people to be concise but also allowed users to easily read, digest, and find interesting stuff. Of course it had some unintended side effects like pictures of dinner, etc. Twitter before it was purely about promoting your brand, publication, or self was pretty cool. Medium is too a response to blogs. It forces their users to use the provided styling so that everything looks good (this is subjective) and at least consistent. It also gives spectators a single place to read blogs rather than having to go to 80 different sites. Snapchat is a bit different. I think it's a response to the issues with sexting and "once something is on the internet, it is there forever." Twitter wouldn't have been anything without limiting the number of characters because it wouldn't have solved the problem with rambling blogs. Same with Snapchat's approach.
:( But really, haha, I like what you say here: We've moved from feature overload to feature scarcity. Hit up the Mac App Store right now and you'll see at least 10 different apps that are "just" full-screen, distraction-free writing apps. Or music apps like Vox that focus entirely on "just the music." We want one app that does something really well, as opposed to something like, say, Facebook or iTunes, which do a bunch of things poorly.99% of blogs were long winded, rambling, pieces of shit that no one read or had time to read.
In terms of social media and apps, it's not about the creative process as much as it is about getting users to actually use these services and solve a "problem".
The more I think about it, the more reasons there are for the way apps have developed in the last couple years. The focus is certainly another factor. The fact that the people building these apps are often unfunded startups with passion attempting to build a MVP or actually build something period also leads to more focused apps. No kid with a computer can take on a feature set like iTunes - but he can build a clean and functional music player that simply plays music. Another reason is that these apps may become successful is that the kids building them are closer to the consumer. Theres no corporate bureaucracy to cut through. The problems are real things that the developer themselves have often experienced personally. Looking at Snapchat and the CEO's recent frat house, party animal, college days + misogynistic comments, Snapchat was a much of a solution to a problem he was having as it was an app for the world.
Being in Computer Science, I've learned that's the de-facto method of creating a good app, for practice or otherwise -- build something you want to use to solve a problem/make things easier. There's a certain honesty to that simplicity that comes with the app, as you touched upon, and I do like that.