A new “social networking app” named Palmsy wants you to know that you don’t need to have thousands of followers or be a celebrity to get a lot of likes on social media. In fact, it’ll send you all the likes you want. There’s just one catch: They’re fake.
However, the likes on Palmsy aren’t the only thing that’s fake. Although it looks like a social media app, it’s hard to call it that when you’re essentially talking and interacting with yourself. You can post on Palmsy, but those posts don’t go out to anyone, just as god intended. When it comes to the likes, the app simply sends you notifications by pulling random names from your phone’s contact list. Those people haven’t really liked your post, though. They’ve never even seen it.
“Palmsy lets you make little posts for yourself. Then sends you some push notifications from random pals from your contacts,” the app’s description reads on Apple’s App Store. “It’s all just for fun, nothing ever leaves your device so your privacy is safe.”
The app is free and appears to be only available on iOS at the moment.
I try to be mindful of my social media use, though it’s very hard in my case because it’s a tool I use for my job. I’m also not immune to the rush you get when your post gets lots of likes or comments. In fact, I’ve opened apps to check and read these notifications an embarrassing number of times. Did it benefit my life? Not really. Did it give me a headache? Yes.
Palmsy is a good form of medicine. By letting me post all the dumb shit I want and sending me fake likes, it does satisfy the small need I have for social media validation. But like medicine, the posts on the app are for me alone.
Will I use Palmsy long-term? In my case, probably not. It’s something I’ll download for a few days for some laughs and then forget about later on. If anything, though, the app’s mere existence is a powerful statement about what the majority of likes and posts on social media mean: absolutely nothing.
Palmsy’s developer, Pat Nakajima, probably summed it best in a post on Threads: “is it useful? no not as such. is it fun? kinda? is it free? hell yea it is.”
