The Gas app is an anonymous voting poll app where you are able to add other students in your school and interact with each other and “gas up your friends.” This app blew up overnight and is #1 in the apple app store, this app is believed to take advantage of the dopamine cycle and teens’ use of social media in the current day. It’s a literal app built to raise self-esteem and spread positivity. How could someone not want an app where everyone is included, and able to maybe even talk to people that they wouldn’t have had the courage to speak to before?
When I spoke to multiple upper school students the feedback was the same. Dj Johnson a current junior said, “This app gives me something to do when I’m bored.” Keller Patterson a current Junior said “This is the only social media that only straight positivity comes out of.” Some students like Josh Chenevert, an All saints’ junior, even mentioned paying for a membership to get hints of who may have voted for them. When Starr Anyah, a current junior was asked what she felt about not having a membership to view, and who voted for her FOMO was a constant mention, and an anxious feeling of not knowing as a high school student what people were saying about her bothered her.
Could an app really bring this much positivity with little to no negativity? When I first began my research I was quick to believe that maybe this could be a good thing, especially considering all of the negative things high school students are exposed to, however, a major headline I continuously ran into was “Gas app trafficking and unsafe location sharing settings.” I looked a little further into this statement and looked around the app myself. When you first log in you are asked to enable your location. This statement stemmed from this. When I asked parents of all saints students how they felt about this “I feel like if this app is supposed to be one of the most positive apps out there, how can I ensure the safety of my kid digitally anywhere?” Byron Haynes expressed, a fair concern at that.
Overall this app has its pros and cons, in my opinion, the pros far outweigh the cons. Kids that had low self-esteem once have an app that actually helps them build and interact with others in a positive manner. Alongside everyone being able to be social and included. This app is very similar to the previous app “tbh”, so I feel that eventually, the app will die out when something bigger and better comes out like everything else.
