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Allowing us to express our thoughts and share our experiences with the world, social media has become vital in our daily lives. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all offered something unique at the time of their inception and have since become people's mainstream choice for interacting with the online world.

Despite the staggering user counts that these social media giants hold, new ventures that quickly turned into successes are proof that there is always room for something new and different.

From a platform curated for creative individuals, to an audio-based network, here are some of the most unique social media apps you can use for a refreshingly different experience.

Among the various effects of social media on adolescents, the biggest ramification of these platforms has to be the overuse and dependency on filters. BeReal counters this by promoting a more realistic approach to sharing pictures on the internet.

Every day at random, BeReal sends out a notification prompting its users to take a photo and upload it within the timeframe of two minutes. There are no filters that you can access, and the app captures pictures from your front and back cameras simultaneously. You can retake a BeReal as many times as you wish, but you do need to publish it to check out what your friends have posted for the day.

The uncertainty of when you get to post a photo paired with a filter-less approach to sharing your life is what makes BeReal one of the more peculiar social media apps out right now.

Launched during the peak of the pandemic in 2020, at a time when most people were locked indoors and bored to tears, Clubhouse almost reinvented social media. And by reinvent, we mean going back to the roots of communication and once again popularizing audio-only conversations.

Clubhouse features several live discussions on various topics that you can join and participate in. You can create your own rooms, invite your friends or just share the link with the masses and enjoy a conversation with strangers.

Clubhouse ended up being so popular that in a matter of weeks, the more mainstream social media platforms followed suit. In fact, if you find yourself using Twitter a lot, you can join Twitter Spaces and enjoy a similar experience to that of Clubhouse.

Polywork isn't your usual happy-go-lucky social media platform where you find cat photos or selfies, and instead is geared towards working professionals looking to interact and collaborate with others in a similar domain.

When you first sign up for an account, Polywork will prompt you to choose a few communities that you can later interact in. Like most other social platforms, you can post, comment, like, and follow other people.

Polywork is still a very sparsely populated networking site but one that has a lot of potential if used correctly. You can think of it as a slightly more community-oriented version of LinkedIn.

It might seem a bit far-fetched to label Discord as a social media app, but the inclusion of community-focused features recently has made it a viable option for those looking to discover communities and make new friends.

Apart from video and voice calling, texting, and creating stickers, you can add apps to your Discord server to automate almost every action.

You can join and interact with people using the public server browser on Discord. Featured communities usually are a great way to explore new games, hobbies, and now even AI tools.

You've probably heard your favorite YouTuber promoting their Patreon in their videos. For the uninitiated, Patreon is a community where creators can upload content in the form of photos, videos, and other exclusive rewards. These goodies can then be accessed by fans who pay for a monthly subscription.

There are different tiers at which creators can choose to place different amounts of content for their patrons to access. One of the biggest reasons why Patreon is such a striving platform for creators is because the company only takes about a 5 percent commission on transactions, reserving most of the revenue for the creators.

Reddit is the website on the internet. Are you interested in cats? Or perhaps you enjoy watching kids fall overthere's a place for everything on Reddit.

The website is divided into thousands of smaller communities that are aptly called subreddits. These communities are jam-packed with all kinds of users, be they experts on the topic, or those who are just scratching the surface.

There is a very effective upvote and downvote system on the website which essentially declares which posts end up on the front page of Reddit. Users also get Reddit karma based on how people react to their posts and comments. You can create posts with photos, videos, GIFs, or just text.

Many argue that due to its vastness, Reddit is the best social media platform you could be using, and we tend to agree with that.

Another instance of a platform blowing up due to the effects of the pandemic is Letterboxd. It is essentially a huge community built for cinephiles who love watching and reviewing movies.

You can keep track of every recent movie you've watched, create a watch list, and discover similar movies based on your watch history. A great way to find new recommendations is by reading reviews left by other users.

Apart from reviewing movies and star rating them, you can create movie lists and diary entries on Letterboxd. Lists are a great way to sort a similar set of movies you've watched, and diary entries can be fun looking back on as memories.

Ello is a platform dedicated to creative individuals, more specifically, artists. You can share your work in a community full of artists, but using Ello gets you more than just likes and followers.

The Creative Briefs section on the platform allows users to connect with major brands through briefs that are regularly posted. If the brand ends up liking your submission, you may be chosen to work on a project directly with the agency.

The Arts Editorial and Underscore campaigns are a great way for community art to gain widespread recognition. If utilized properly, Ello can help artists crack brand deals and make posting to social media worthwhile.

Most mainstream social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter seem to be incorporating the same set of features that keeps narrowing the differentiating factors between them.

No matter what social media platform you incline the most towards, there is a plethora of ways to distinctively craft and consume content. Fortunately, certain social media apps truly do offer unique features, and it is up to us internet beings to explore these new platforms.

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8 Unique Social Media Platforms That Offer Something Different - MUO - MakeUseOf