A little story: It’s 6 AM and I find myself compulsively scrolling through public outrage videos and dog photos. I’m scrolling through my twitter feed, finding punchy sentences on the latest trend and tragedy. I feel like my thoughts are becoming limited to what I can fit in 140 characters, and anxious comparing myself to other’s carefully tailored personas. With the feed’s algorithms working in opaque ways and beholden to maximizing advertising revenue, I found it difficult to find thoughtful articles on my interests. Unwilling to wait for the platforms to suddenly become altruistic, I decided to make an alternative. A healthier option to disseminate articles and essays that promote understanding, nuance, insight, and focus.
Here's two key features that make Gem stand out:
- Adjectives - Rating with adjectives help us better understand your taste. We scan the article to determine the adjectives you’d naturally use. These adjectives are derived from criteria like objectivity, importance, and convincingness. Above all, this keeps out sensationalism and improves quality.
- Control - For every feed we have settings which let you filter by type (e.g. tutorials, opinions, and news) or adjust the influence of factors like your viewing history and popularity.
Thanks so much for checking out Gem. We look forward to hearing your feedback! ️
I'm also one of the makers of Gem. Gem is an iOS app that helps people tired of clickbait find articles with adjective based ratings, and control over the algorithm.
We've been working on this for over a year and would appreciate you feedback. Thank you!
Can I ask what factors you considered to release as an iOS app (rather than, say, a website)?
