The Wessex Wire

The Student News Site of West Essex Regional High School

The Wessex Wire

The Wessex Wire

West Essex is in the House

By Jake Wolf ’17

West Essex is in the house, but is it here to stay? The newest social media craze is Houseparty, an app that allows its users to video chat with up to seven friends. The app was only introduced to the school this year, but take a look at a West Essex student’s phone, and chances are they will have notifications that their friends are “in the house,” signifying that they are online and available to join a video chat.

“I like how you can talk to more than one person,” senior Tommy Marano said. “You can hop into random people’s conversations and it is really fun when they are having a deep conversation to interrupt it.”

One of the unique features of House Party is that, unlike other group video chatting apps such as Skype or Oovoo, you don’t need to be invited to join a friend’s conversation. Users can join any conversation that their friends are in, as long as the conversation is not locked. They can also see who all of their friends are on with, and can “wave” at people, asking them if they want to talk.

These features allow users to make new friends through House Party, as they can simply join other chats, even if they are not close with the people in the chat. Simply swiping the screen will change the chat to another group of people that are talking on the app. However, there is still a sense of privacy and safety, because you cannot just add anyone as a friend, you must request them. Additionally, if you want to have a private conversation, you can lock the room to prevent other users from joining the chat.

The accessibility to multiple video chat rooms has allowed students of all grades to interact with each other and make new friends. Someone can join any room they want as long as it’s not locked. It has been a great way to unite our otherwise cliquey and divided school.

“House party is an awesome app and allows me to talk to all my baddies at the same time,” senior Jaaffar Seddiki said. “Well, only seven at a time, but I make it work.”

Junior Madison Venditti agrees with Seddiki, saying “I really like how you can use the app to talk to everyone all at once.”

Despite the app’s popularity, not everyone enjoys chatting on it. Senior Joe Torter refuses to download the app after trying House Party out with his friends.

“I joined a chat on my friend’s House Party account and I felt extremely uncomfortable and out of place,” Torter said. “Honestly, there are a lot of kids I just don’t want to chat with, in the nicest way possible.”

Principal Diliberto and Mr. Markey participate in a House Party

 

Freshman Tyler Goldberg started out as a fan of the app, but has already deleted it off of his phone. “I liked it because you can interact with more than one friend at once instead of just facetiming one person, and I liked how everyone can join, instead of how Oovoo was much more restrictive,” Goldberg said. “People will get annoyed with it because it is laggy with a lot of ads.”

House Party is the latest fad in a series of social media trends, but will the app be more like Instagram, an app that has been successful for years, or Vine, which has recently been shut down due to its fading popularity?

Various students, including Goldberg and Venditti, have already deleted the app, leading many to believe that it is just a matter of time before West Essex gets over House Party and moves on to the next app that will grab everyone’s attention.

“It’s kind of like Bubble Struggle at West Essex,” Torter said. “The app itself will remain, but the hype will definitely die down.”

 

More to Discover