There is an app called Binky that does nothing and it’s wonderful
Sure, it’s fun to see photos of dumb dogs and screenshots of bad journalism, but social media, by and large, is making us pretty miserable. You’ve seen the posts from your friends, the ones saying they “need to unplug for a while,” and you’ve seen them back a day later, offering their take on the latest Trump scandal. See, the problem is there’s no alternative. Whether you believe it or not, we come to miss all that scrolling, liking, and swiping; it’s become instinctual.
That’s where Binky comes in. On its surface, Binky does nothing. In a new piece from The Atlantic, author Ian Bogost describes it thusly:
Binky is an app that does everything an app is expected to do. It’s got posts. It’s got likes. It’s got comments. It’s got the infinitely scrolling timeline found in all social apps, from Facebook to Twitter, Instagram to Snapchat.
I open it and start scrolling. Images of people, foods, and objects appear on and then vanish off the screen. Solar cooker. B.F. Skinner. Shoes. Marmalade. Sports Bra. Michael Jackson. Ganesha. Aurora Borealis. These are “binks,” the name for posts on Binky.