By: Layla Krantz
If you are a teenager and own a smartphone, you may have noticed talk of the app “tbh” circulating around the halls of your high school–or perhaps you have already downloaded it yourself. Launched in August to select states, tbh, which stands for “to be honest”, has already surpassed five million downloads, hitting number one in the app store and settling currently in the top twenties. Upon viewing its high success, Facebook has even announced in mid-October that it is acquiring tbh.
The social networking app features anonymous interactions between peers, however, unlike its counterparts, such as ASKfm, Sarahah and YikYak, tbh’s creators innovated by getting rid of typing altogether.
Tbh works like this: after downloading, users must first enter their school’s name and sync their phone’s contact list to add their friends. Users then receive poll questions prompted by the app, with four options of friends’ names as responses. Users are also awarded ‘gems’ when their friends respond with their name to a question (a pink gem when it’s a girl and a blue gem when it it’s a boy), and each gem gained unlocks another poll. However, tbh only allows you to take twelve polls per hour, leaving users to always anticipate more.
LREI students began downloading tbh in droves beginning in the second and third weeks of school. According to an online survey of the student body, almost two-thirds of LREI students reported using the app. Of those users, one-third check the app daily.
“When it first came out people would go on it all the time, after every class, every break, after school—it was constant,” senior Maya Gavant said. Tbh has undergone the quintessential cycle after new, unconventional apps emerge: individuals who download it convince their friends to download it too, and in a short while, a whole community is hooked. “When I first downloaded [tbh] I kept deleting and re-downloading it. I finally just kept it,” Gavant said. “I stopped deleting it from my phone because everyone’s on it and I don’t want to [miss out].”
So, what makes downloading tbh so irresistible?
“Our goals for anonymity are much different than most apps [that emphasize] the ability to say things without repercussions,” the tbh team told Techcrunch. “We worked backwards from the content we wanted to see, which was nice comments about ourselves—a product you’d open and it’d tell you all your strengths and things you’re good at and make you happier and more productive.”
By eliminating typing, tbh rules out the possibility of online harassment. Anonymous social media apps have failed in the past because users felt free to unleash mean-spirited comments at will, taking cover in the fact that anonymity would shield them from accountability.
“If we’re improving the mental health of millions of teens, that’s a success to us,” said Nikita Bier, the co-founder of tbh.
Many users notice and appreciate this metamorphosis. “Something I like about the app is that [the questions are] basically all positive,” Gavant said. “They are just compliments or [superlatives], and generally positive things.”
In this age of social media, where many partakers’ goal for their personal profiles is to publicly present themselves in an attractive way, teens crave positive feedback. Tbh apparently satisfies this. Seeing responses about herself to questions such as “Most likely to be on Broadway?”, “Most likely to quietly take over the world?” and “Best to bring to a party”, a teen like Maya experiences a stimulating rise in self-esteem.
“When I get a nice compliment it makes me feel good,” Gavant said. Many other students, regardless of age or gender, echoed this impression.
Tbh is popular because of its addictive nature; it commands the time and attention of young people, and they have fun using it. Yet one may wonder, if the app preaches positivity and conviviality, why must it be anonymous in the first place? How can this trend of complimenting each other in cyberspace affect the way we interact in person?
“Tbh added a feature where you can reply [on one of your polls] to see if your friend will reveal themselves,” Gavant said. “It’s interesting and kind of weird to me because the whole point of the compliments being anonymous is that you might not necessarily say them in person, so if you [were] to reveal yourself you might as well go and tell it directly to that person.”
It may not disappoint someone to not hear the more trivial or silly superlatives–such as “Would get a bunk bed as an adult and feel no shame” or “Gets genuinely hurt when a dog doesn’t want to be pet by them”–in person. However, if a user categorizes their friend under “Always pulls me up when I’m feeling down” or “Underestimates their worth,” the compliment would undoubtedly be meaningful if spoken in real life, and maybe even worthwhile to know which friend thought it.
Another uncertainty stands: Does tbh’s positivity compensate for the bewilderment that anonymity potentially causes? Can teenagers depend on an app like this to fulfill their emotional needs?
Although tbh seems harmless enough, it could be a confidence-killer to have comparatively fewer ‘gems’ than your friends. “Because the questions are overall positive, it’s generally a boost to someone’s self-esteem,” Gavant said. “But there is a feed where you can see which responses your friends are getting in real time, and how many gems they have, and if you see others getting more gems than you, you wonder why you don’t get more. I could see how that can take a negative effect on people’s self-esteem.”
If someone is popular or well-liked, the app could confirm that. Otherwise it can belittle kids to have a lower number of “likes” than their friends. The ability to view friends’ results can turn tbh into a popularity contest, countering its intended, constructive use.
Senior Erika Nally, who has not downloaded tbh, warns about the app. “Even though the app markets itself as giving off ‘positive vibes,’ the reality is that this app is another way for [kids] to judge others and be judged,” she said. “When people use this app, they are being judged all day by everyone on their contact list. Teens need time to figure out who they are, not an app that will tell them who they are based on what their contacts think of them.”
Students can consider the tradeoffs they may be making with their self-confidence when using tbh, and how the app affects the ways in which they praise themselves.
“Tbh isn’t ideal,” student body President Loveday Trumbull says. “But it’s well-intentioned. I think it’s important that the app uses anonymity to normalize positivity and support online as opposed to cyberbullying.”
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