In between classes at Strawberry Crest High School, students are glued to their phones. As they juggle tweets and Facebook posts, Snapchat stories and Instagram pictures, they open a new app that has managed to break into the social media storm.
Hashtag Life was created by Grant Horvath and his colleague over a year ago, and is currently being used in Florida high schools and colleges. In the age where teenagers and young adults feel pressured to have a popular online identity, Hashtag Life brings together high school and college students with an app that focuses on the community rather than the individual.
After Hashtag Life exploded in popularity at Strawberry Crest, Horvath attended a sporting event and met two students, Jose Lozoya and Sydney Pickern. He says they were a large part of why the app was successful at SCHS and asked for their input on the app. Horvath plans on using student suggestions to make Hashtag Life even more appealing.
Jose, a junior, and Sydney, a senior, found out about the app from their friends, and then began telling their other peers about it. They used the school’s yearbook club and Student Government Association to promote it even more.
“This is like one huge story,” Lozoya said. “It’s not towards you, it’s more towards the school. Anything up there can be the talk of the day — whether it’s bad or good.”
According to Horvath, the app is perfect for teens who want a presence on social media but are nervous about creating personal accounts, such as on Facebook or Instagram.
“We found an opportunity to create a different environment,” Horvath said. “When you’re afraid to create Instagram, you don’t have to be afraid to create this.”
To use the app, students simply create a username, select what school they attend and begin posting. All posts are anonymous, and other users can vote a post up or down.
Unlike the popular app Snapchat, where posts automatically delete after 24 hours and are associated with a particular user, Hashtag Life posts are deleted based on popularity. The more positive votes a post receives, the longer it is visible.
Users of the app are also able to change locations and view posts from other schools, all while remaining anonymous. Users can post images with their friends, pictures of school elections and snapshots of weekend hangouts to their school’s designated page.
Although the school year is coming to a close, Lozoya said he thinks the app will survive the summer break.
“I’ll continue to use it,” Lozoya said. “Even if it dies down in the summer, I’m sure it’ll pick up when school starts again.”
Hashtag Life is a free app available for download on Google Play and the App Store.
“We’re focused on getting out of the realm of identity,” Horvath said. “We’re trying to create something people will love.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com .
