The platform adamantly insists they are not a social media platform, since there are no news feeds, likes, or ads.
While most servers - Discord’s terminology for community spaces - are invite-only, there are some larger ones that are open for discussions around games like Fortnite. It’s a free chat platform that connects individuals based on interests as wide-ranging as you can imagine, allowing them to communicate via chat, video, and even streaming. I learned that I’ve been out of the loop since 2015, when the service was first founded. The trick is staying educated in order to empower yourself and your teens. But, it turns out, no new technology is absolutely negative or positive. To learn more, I dove deep into articles with doomsday headlines like “The Dark Side of Discord” and “ Why You Shouldn’t Use Discord.” Not exactly an enthused recommendation for the platform. The moms in my groups were understandably concerned about some of the dangers they’d heard about the chat platform, such as predatory “catfishing” (those who steal another person’s identity to pretend to be someone else), stolen information, and the alt-right proliferation on the platform. It’s one of the fastest growing social platforms out there, with over 300M users in 2020 and growing, so chances are, you know a young adult who is using Discord. My local moms’ groups were talking about how their teens were spending hours on end - often well into the night - on Discord, especially during the summer without typical school schedules. So I went down a spiral of Discord research, which proved fascinating and useful - especially as a parent.
One day, while browsing the Internet, I heard myself asking in querulous tones, “What is the Discord app? And why do I keep hearing about it?” And that was when I realized that I was perilously close to my greatest fear: turning into an out-of-touch crank, borderline terrified of new technologies.
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