Tech: Blogging on the go
Most of us would have owned a physical diary at some point in our lives - at least, back in the days before the advent of the Internet. The diary would be our companion, our confidante, a hassle-free, personal way to record our lives.
But then technology came along and digitised everything. The late 2000s saw the boom of social media and blogging platforms like Blogger, Wordpress and LiveJournal, which were wildly popular among teens and young adults. Diary entries were no longer personal and confidential once they went online - in fact, most of our blogs would feature a visitor counter to track our hits. There were also widgets you could add, like a tagboard, which allowed friends and visitors to leave comments. The high-achievers went even further to add advertisements to their blogs, earning some spare cash from their after-school hobby.
But the fad did not last, and most blogs went defunct in the recent years. With more convenient micro-blogging applications like Twitter, which allows users to post 'tweets' of up to 140 characters, long-form blogging gradually lost its magic.
Now, a new mobile application is set to revive the blogging trend. Dayre (pronounced Diary) is a bite-sized blogging application available on both iOS and Android. The app brings together the best of both worlds - it allows users to post updates of up to 500 characters and at the end of the day, all the posts of the day are combined into one post (like your daily diary entry!). The idea is that you can post as many updates as you want in a day without 'spamming' your dashboard.
Cheo Ming Shen, the founder of Dayre, notes that with traditional blogging, you need to sit down and think about it before hashing out the entire piece. With Dayre, you can do it step by step. “We really want to put micro information into context,” he says.
With Dayre, it's not all about text - the interface gives you five options from crafting a text post, posting stickers, posting an image, a video or geotagging (posting with your location tagged)! And as with other social media applications, your friends or followers will be able to 'like' or leave comments on your day.
Barely three months after its release, the app now has close to 50,000 users - mainly teens and young adults. "It's simple to use, fuss-free and the interface is user-friendly," says Business undergraduate Shantelle Thian, 21, who has been updating her Dayre frequently since November 2013. "I use it especially when I travel - it's a really easy way to document my travel adventures because it allows me to post images and log the locations I've visited!"
20-year-old Tryne Ong also shares similar sentiments. "I like that there're not too many functions, but enough options for me to make my Dayre interesting. I love the stickers, they're really cute and unique to Dayre," the Literature undergraduate shares.
But the relatively new app still has room for improvement. The interface gets a little laggy at times, especially when uploading images and videos. Another downside is that the platform is only fully functional on mobile - meaning users can access and read Dayres on the computer, but can only log in and post updates from the mobile application.
Whilst simple, the app may just be the spark to reviving blogging and for now, it certainly serves the purpose in its motto - for users to 'Share more and create your story.'
