Tech Review: State.com

Rising above the clout of social networking sites like Facebook, Google+, Myspace and the likes, a new media platform is currently creating silent waves in the deep ocean that our social media community is. It is being launched in India for the first time and a select few bloggers have been given the opportunity to join it, experience it and review it. I'm happily one of those few. :D

So cutting directly to the chase, State.com is a new media platform that changes the way you use social media to state your opinion. It focuses on your opinion and helps you connect to like-minded people based on similar opinions on things. It gives no importance to the number of friends in your friend list or the amounts of likes you get. It has a simple logic - you state your opinions on the platform on anything and everything under the sun that means something to you. It could be a gummy bear candy, a political coup or a form of sports, you may state your opinions on any topic just by clicking on the 'STATE' button at the top of the screen, selecting appropriate word(s) for it and making a comment underneath. It is as simple as that to state an opinion, no matter how trivial or how vital. Even if you don't find a topic that you want to opine on, you can simply create a new topic and let others state their opinions on it.

On the face of it, all of this seems like a futile exercise. But it isn't. Because as it is happening today, a few majoritarian opinions normally end up becoming the most accepted opinions on social media, leaving out little space for differing views to get a voice or be heard. State.com helps bring such subjugated voices to the fore. It gives an equal footing to everybody to opine on things that matter to them, and connect with people who think the same as they do. Check out how it works here. This video pretty much explains how one is supposed to go about with using State. (I'm somehow unable to embed the video here - apologies!)

Why is state.com good? Well, for starters, it lets you be heard, no matter how influential or unknown you are. It just asks for your opinion, that is all. No likes, no followers, no hashtags, no frivolities of any kind. Further, it provides a single platform where myriad views about important issues converge to give you a complete picture of what the world and specific pockets of it are thinking about a certain issue or development or a product. In the long run it could help governments, companies, celebrities and the people in power to gauge people's opinions about their actions and decisions, and make informed decisions keeping in view the mass sentiment about something.

In that, State.com seems to be the online counterpart of what democracy is in the field of governance.

The pros of State.com majorly lie in its sheer simplicity and ease of access. It is very simple to use, with only a few clicks required for one's opinions on any topic to be stated on the platform. It is quick and crisp to use and doesn't take up a lot of your precious time that could be spent elsewhere in a more productive manner. The website is conspicuous by its simple and elegant design, with everything clearly laid out and organized to help the user find what (s)he is looking for with minimum effort. All the trending topics are displayed on the homepage for one to quickly reach and opine on.

How does one connect with like-minded people? Simply by tuning into them by clicking the radio-tuner-like button on the extreme upper right corner of their profiles. Stating opinions is also made super-easy and fun by grouping opinion words according to their popularity into Top Word Groups. Suggestions of some of the most-used words are also offered for you to choose from while stating your opinion on something. There are several other novel features, like the Sentiment Range, which shows you where your opinion stands in terms of intensity of sentiment as compared to global sentiments on the particular topic. Once you have stated an opinion, the site also generates insights related to the topic on State.com.

The whole process of stating is just so simple and fun, the website will have you hooked for long. The only catch being, unlike other social media and networking sites, hooking on to this will only enrich your mind and enlighten you about the global sentiment on issues of significance around the world. It's like reading the newspaper, but in an interesting and interactive way, so that your personal opinions on the newsclips also count and elicit similar or differing opinions from others as well.

This is a completely novel concept in the world of social media, and I sincerely hope it accomplishes its purpose of bringing opinions together and building an influential group of people that can affect how things are done in the world. It has the simplicity yet the power to bring change in how we share and connect. More power to State.com!

Check out this fun video that will tell you what you've been doing wrong all this time:

Check out State.com right away folks, it's where the opinionated classes are heading right now!


[This review is part of a product review programme by Blogadda.com and State.com]