Stress, consumerism and addiction characterize every social media platform today. You can’t go on any platform without being bombarded by advertisements, competition for your attention and endless strategies to keep you on each app for as long as possible. Avid users of social media develop anxiety with maintaining a presence on each app — it’s almost a part-time job to contribute consistently well-performing posts to your feeds.
The most popular websites are guilty of this; any regular user of Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube can easily agree. While it seems like this is just how it has to be now, there is one platform that has stuck to its original premise and could be a breath of fresh air for frustrated people online: VSCO.
VSCO: An Old Favorite
Any college girl with a long standing social media presence knows that VSCO passed its peak several years ago — the platform was most popular from around 2015-2018. Following Tumblr, VSCO became a space for many young teen girls to create an artsy online aesthetic that was relatively easy to maintain with their plethora of filters. You weren’t expected to be creating the most cohesive aesthetic, and it was still fun to play around with the editing tools whether you posted or not.
VSCO was the place to be, a hidden gem on the path of making your first profiles on every other social media platform. But as time went on, the app was left in the dust for things that are better at keeping your attention.
How VSCO is Different
What makes VSCO so great, anyway? The app offers a ton of photo editing tools all for free (with an option to pay for a premium subscription). Although many young girls used the DOG2 filter one too many times, VSCO teaches users the first steps to photo editing, and generally offers a more user-friendly experience than Instagram.
The negative features of social media that characterize it today are generally not present on VSCO. The app does not display Follower, Repost or Favorite counts publicly, and it is rare that anyone becomes “VSCO famous” or goes viral even once. Because DM (the only way to actually “talk” to someone on the app) is rarely used, VSCO remains less based on commenting what you think about other users. Users aren’t worried about if they get less favorites than their friends, it’s more difficult to discuss what someone posted (which warrants less bullying too) and the rarity of virality makes the app less addictive and stressful.
Most importantly, advertisements do not exist on VSCO. The only promotion on the app is for VSCO Premium, but even this banner is easy to ignore. While keeping the platform ad-free definitely prevented it from growing, it shows that the app developers are sticking to their vision for VSCO, and aren’t just in it for the money.
Hidden Benefits
VSCO is your not-so-secret photo journal. Because the app is relatively unpopular, yet still known, you can make it what you want. Post as much or as little as you like and post whatever you want without worrying about what every other social media platform expects of you.
The app being totally silent is a breather from being bombarded with noise everywhere else. Because DSCOs (VSCO videos) are silent, sub-10 second clips that have very low frames per second, the media on the app is generally easier to consume, and might be preferable after long hours of scrolling on TikTok.
Do you click on someone’s VSCO link when it’s in their Instagram bio? Let us know @VALLEYmag on Instagram!
