1. Time well spent

Other platforms make money by sucking up your time with ads and distractions. The longer you spend on their apps, the more money they make selling digital ads. And what’s more is you’re probably so used to scrolling, you no longer realize how much energy it takes just to process everything you’re looking at.

Check out your Facebook and Instagram feeds. One out of every five posts will be an ad. It’s a formula and it’s keeping you from the things you actually came for—to connect with the people and interests you care about.

So, let’s stop all that. On The Jump, your feeds are free of ads and you’ll see your friends’ posts every time. Because why should an algorithm decide which updates and friend posts actually matter to you?

2. Power of positivity

There’s an old news media adage: ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ On other platforms the most outlandish, polarizing stories are the ones that illicit the most comments, clicks and shares, so the algorithm prioritizes those posts over others.

That means, when you sign on to send your friend a cheerful Happy Birthday message, you’re forced to wade through divisive politics, angry rants and depressing posts, too. Who needs that emotional rollercoaster? It’s just exhausting.

On The Jump, we don’t reward negativity by helping it go viral. Sure, a friend might post an article that’s depressing or contentious, but it won’t be the norm and there won’t be mechanisms in place that facilitate virality. We believe that if we stop celebrating negative behavior, we can cultivate an ecosystem that values positivity, first and foremost.

We can cultivate an ecosystem that values positivity

3. Your data is yours

You’re a person, not a revenue stream. At The Jump, we will never sell your data and we’ll never prey on your information just to make a buck. That means, you can rest easy knowing we won’t eavesdrop on your conversations or inundate you with ads for that vacuum you looked at last week.

But we know what you’re thinking—that’s great, but how will you actually make money? Well, it won’t be by selling you out, because our revenue model doesn’t require it. We firmly believe that we can partner with cool brands and interesting creators to produce content you’ll actually want to see, content so cool you actually seek it out. (Think unique experiences, engaging tutorials and exclusive partnerships.)

Honestly, digital advertising was due for an overhaul anyway. Every year, brands drop $130 billion on ads and statistics show they don’t make much of an impact. So, while we’re changing the face of social media, let’s take on the advertising industry, too.

4. Focus on connection

Even if we don’t love Facebook, we’ll be the first to tell you that it’s not all bad. The parts about connecting friends and family? That’s the good stuff, but it’s hard to see all that when the negative aspects are so prevalent.

On The Jump, connection is at our forefront. We’re always looking for ways to enrich communication, rather than distract from it. That means we’re focusing on more ways for friends to share updates with other friends and expanding functionality to support the group experience.

By bringing so many tools together (signups, podcasts, events, checklists, file storage, just to name a few) we’re able to unite communities in a way that others can’t. On the app, discussions are engaging, resources are organized and groups of all sizes are able to collaborate effectively and efficiently.

5. You’re in control

We think user-driven customization is key to delivering a better social media experience. You can opt out of updates from users and hide posts from your newsfeed, but that’s just the beginning. Maybe you need updates from someone in one group, but don’t want to hear from them in another? We give you the tools to mix and match which updates you get throughout the app.

If you don’t like newsfeeds, no problem. On The Jump, you can turn it off entirely. Depressed by all the covid-19 news? We have a built-in feed filter that allows you to automatically remove posts based off any mix of keywords you select.

Finally, in addition to being able to filter your feed views based off all posts, friend posts and Jumps, you can also create custom feeds with specific friends and Jumps included.

Written by

Natalie Bogan Morgan

It’s taught all of us a powerful lesson about the importance of connection, that although we may be separated by distance, the only way to get through this is together. Classes are moving online, churches are streaming services and many parents have stepped up to help school-aged kids navigate these uncharted waters.

The stories of generosity, bravery and support are endless and beautiful. As nurses and doctors fight on the front lines, truckers are driving days on end to deliver supplies, store workers are stocking round the clock and crafters are constructing masks to aid healthcare workers, to name a few.

Meanwhile, on The Jump, we’re seeing groups and friends come together like never before. Troops are working on badges virtually, coaches are inspiring their players with daily challenges, churches are moving their small groups onto the app and strangers are sharing advice on everything from quarantine cooking to help with homeschooling.

With that in mind, we hope The Jump can continue to serve as a resource for uniting your loved ones. If you have questions about the app, feature requests or would like us to help connect a group you’re a part of on The Jump, send us a note at help@thejump.com. Our team is happy to help.

Hopefully, as our lives return to a new normal in the coming weeks, we’ll always remember the value of staying connected both on and offline.

Written by

Peter McClung

Download The Jump

Jumps you might be interested in

Join one of these lively communities and get involved—all social distancing approved!

Food Files

Join Now

A Photo A Day

Join Now

Daily Dose of Humor

Join Now

Companies like Facebook and Google track your location, interests, daily habits, psychological/physical health, purchase history, and they can even predict if you’re pregnant (oftentimes before you’ve told another human being). This information is collected and then sold to advertisers so that they can curate ads to your preferences. While seeing helpful ads is great, it shouldn’t come at the cost of giving your deepest, personal information to unscrupulous tech companies who are looking to make a quick buck.

Big tech tracks your psychological and physical health

A few years ago, Target started using data from customers credit and debit card purchases to determine whether or not some of their customers were pregnant. Target’s intent was to curate advertisements to incentivize pregnant mothers to purchase maternity clothing, cribs, baby clothes, etc. Through this technology, Target has been able to predict whether a woman is pregnant with startling accuracy.

One poignant story, recorded in The New York Times, emerged soon after Target launched this new program:

About a year after Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model, a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.

“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”

The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

It’s disturbing that Target can know if a teenager is pregnant before her own father is aware. But Target can’t be faulted more than anyone else. Almost all brands utilize big tech in this manner to track intimate details about people’s health.

In 2016, a cancer patient from Missouri sued Facebook because it tracked his internet activity even after he left facebook.com.

The suit was ultimately dismissed and Facebook’s practice of tracking user activity, even after they have left the website, is still occurring today.

By analyzing what you have “Liked,” Facebook can also predict your:

• Emotional stability
• Whether your relationship is going to last
• Whether you use illegal substances
• Intelligence
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• Race
• Political views
• Satisfaction with life
• Age

This list is nowhere near exhaustive, but it does paint a picture of the type of personal information that big tech collects to show you curated ads. Since big tech is motivated by money and the government is refusing to step in, these companies have no reason to change. Facebook, Google, and others will only change if they start losing users to alternatives, which can happen, now that competitors like The Jump are starting to grow. 

Big tech tracks your location and travel information

Through apps on your phone, tech companies track your location, travel habits, and method of transportation on a daily basis. Also, if you own an Android phone, Google knows where you’ve travelled, regardless of whether you’ve downloaded apps that track your location. These tracking systems are unbelievably accurate. They identify exactly where a person is located and update a user’s location roughly 14,000 times a day. Companies make more money when they provide advertisers with more information about you. There’s nothing that stops them from figuring out the most intimate details of your day. In Future Crimes, Goodman documented that big tech can even determine if you’re having an affair based on where you’re sleeping at night and who you’re sleeping next to.

An investigative study by The New York Times accessed location tracking data for average citizens across the U.S. They were able to figure out shockingly personal details about people, just based on their location. For example, Ms. Margin, a schoolteacher from Up-state New York, had an app on her phone that revealed her location to private companies, entirely without her knowledge. Through location tracking, The Times could watch Ms. Margin as she went to school, a weight watcher’s meeting, a medical appointment, and then to her ex-boyfriends house at the end of the day.

The reality of our surveillance state is remarkably disturbing. But consumers shouldn’t merely be disturbed and then refuse to change their habits. Now that you know how your privacy is being violated, make a difference by switching to a platform that actually respects your life!  The Jump is a perfect alternative. Our revenue model is powered by invitation, not exploitation. We don’t track anyone’s data in order to curate ads to user preferences. So join the movement and respect yourself by switching to a platform that actually protects your data.

Written by

Peter McClung

What does this mean for The Jump? Opportunity. As companies like Uber, AirBnB, and Netflix have taught us, bad customer service creates opportunity. Combine these favorable circumstances with a platform that has no digital ads, better connection and loads of free content and you have a winner! But before learning about these features, let’s take a complete tour of Facebook’s scandals. 

The “lowlights” of Facebook’s worst scandals in 2018

Last December, Issie Lapowsky from Wired wrote a phenomenal article detailing Facebook’s 21 scandals in 2018. The 10 scandals recorded in this blog post are based mostly on information from that article. We used some of our favorite GIFs to tell the story.

1. Facebook and Russia 

The Mueller investigation, Congressmen, and the media have uncovered that Russian agents have significantly interfered with Facebook’s platform. During the 2016 U.S. election, employees from Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) created fake accounts in an attempt to infuse the United States with propaganda. In July, Facebook also shut down 32 fake accounts that were likely linked to the IRA.

2. The UN identifies Facebook’s role in genocide in Myranmar 

Facebook’s issues in Myanmar has contributed to the systematic slaughter of the Rohingya Muslims. Since the company has not sufficiently blocked content inciting violence between people groups in Southeast Asia and Oceania, Sri Lanka banned Facebook and Papua New Guinea has considered doing the same. 

3. Cambridge Analytica 

In March, The New York Times revealed that private user data from Facebook was obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a technology firm that profiled private citizens for political purposes. Facebook admitted that Cambridge Analytica misappropriated the data of up to 87 million users. Consumers then learned that, until 2015, developers had broad access to user data on Facebook. Facebook is still trying to discover where all that data went. 

4. Facebook’s careless data deals 

In June, a New York Times investigation uncovered that device manufacturers like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Blackberry struck deals with Facebook, in which Facebook agreed to give them access to user data. In December, The Times also exposed that Facebook struck data sharing deals with over 150 companies, including Netflix and Spotify. Facebook’s sale of data in this manner is a massive violation of user privacy. 

5. Earnings report causes Facebook stock to tank 

In Facebook’s second quarter earnings report of 2018, it predicted that its revenue growth would slow down through the end of 2019. Shortly after this prediction, Facebook stock plummeted. 

6. Political problems 

In August, employees leaked a memo from within Facebook about the lack of political diversity in the company. Then, the ACLU filed a lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming that Facebook’s ad targeting tools favor men over women. The Justice Department decided to support the ACLU in their lawsuit. Another investigation by The New York Times revealed that Facebook attempted to cover up the extent to which it was involved in the Russia scandal. 

7. Original founders of Instagram resign 

Instagram’s Founders and CEO announced that they’d be stepping down after Facebook exerted growing influence over the platform they pioneered. The founders of WhatsApp also left Facebook because of conflict with FB leadership regarding user privacy. After he left, Brian Acton, a WhatsApp co-founder, posted “It is time. #deletefacebook” on his Twitter account. 

8. Accounts hacked and leaked 

In September 2018, 30 Million Facebook accounts were hacked, enabling hackers to act as the owner of the accounts and potentially gain access to third party accounts that used a Facebook login. 

9. Lawsuit because of Facebook’s inflated video view metric

Facebook admitted to inflating statistics regarding the viewing of its videos. Brands sued Facebook because they paid for the ad space next to the videos without knowledge of what they were really purchasing.

10. Facebook bug leaks the photos of 6.8 million users 

Facebook had a bug in its photo API, which gave 1,500 apps automatic access to user’s photos, regardless of whether they wanted the photos to be shared. It took Facebook over two weeks to fix the problem and the company failed to let anyone know that there was an issue until two months after the problem occurred. 

If these scandals aren’t enough to depress you, here’s a fact that will: Mark Zuckerberg promised at the beginning of 2018 that he was going to fix Facebook. Even though Facebook leadership was actively trying to “fix it,” the company was still circling the drain ethically. There has to be an alternative to hold Facebook accountable. 

Bad customer service creates opportunity

We live in a world with better products at lower prices because entrepreneurs examined the status quo and realized that someone could do better. The largest taxi companies in the world, Uber and Lyft, don’t own a single cab. The most innovative hotel company, AirBnB, doesn’t own a single hotel room. And, Netflix, a service that provides customers with access to shows and movies, doesn’t stream a single channel. Everyday, entrepreneurs are building better ways to serve customers. 

When an entire industry is not being served well, there is opportunity.

As seen through Facebook’s long list of scandals, disruption is already happening, creating opportunity. Now is the time to take action. We’ve designed our platform to not be constrained by a product design that requires us to push ads and violate your privacy. The Jump is a platform designed to promote authentic relationships, not push propaganda. 

If you’d like to benefit from the next level service that The Jump provides, then download the free app! Also, be sure to check out our website and YouTube channel to learn more!

Written by

Wesley Elder

“There’s a growing frustration with social media across the country. People are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with privacy violation, incessant ads, and unhealthy community,” explains Peter McClung, CEO of The Jump.

“It’s time we raise the standard, so we decided to build something better for our communities.”

Building a better platform for groups

While The Jump is still a young company, the multi-million dollar platform reflects the talent and vision of a veteran development and marketing team. Sports leagues, clubs, churches, performing arts groups, co-ops, schools and more are already leveraging the app to streamline communication, increase transparency, and foster healthy relationships. Soon, the American Heritage Girls—a youth organization—will join the platform, using it as its primary communication tool for all 50,000 members. 

Here’s how The Jump works:

Given that The Jump is all about connecting groups of people, it makes sense that homeschool co-ops have been quick to recognize the app’s value. To learn how The Jump can help transform your co-op’s efficiency and community, read on. 

Reason 1: reduce text and email clutter

As a former homeschooler myself, I used to be involved in a homeschool debate club. I remember moms in our club constantly communicating in massive group email and text chains, trying to coordinate club activities. It was an endless stream of messages and it was impossible to keep track of it all. It never failed, group leaders fielded the same questions over and over, messages were often missed, and various families fell through the cracks. 

The Jump alleviates those traditional pain points, utilizing a social-media style platform. All of a sudden, group email and traditional messaging is replaced by a collaborative and organized solution. Members can post a question and anyone in the group can comment to help or ask questions. Messages are grouped and communication is clear—eliminating redundant questions and saving time.

Reason 2: helpful resources

Every group is different. On The Jump, co-op’s have a wide-range of resources and tools at their fingertips, making it easy to customize an experience that works for groups of all sizes and activities. Beyond standard features like direct messaging, photo sharing, videos, gifs and links, the app also provides tools for creating sign-ups, posting files, adding calendar events, podcasts, checklists, polls and more. Members can quickly create and share YouTube videos, favorite Amazon products and Spotify playlists, too.

With the app, parents can forego piecemeal programs like Eventbrite, Survey Monkey and GroupMe, in favor of a single platform that allows a community to bond in a single place. 

Reason 3: no distractions

If you’re using a Facebook group to support your homeschool co-op, it’s a wonder that anyone can concentrate! Ads, notifications and a steady stream of posts are there to jockey for a user’s attention, the second they log onto the platform. That’s not an accident either. Facebook was designed to serve up content that sucks users in for as long as possible. As Facebook original President Sean Parker openly admitted, the network intends to “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.” 

In contrast, the user experience on The Jump is much cleaner. There’s no centralized feed, so users only see content specific to their co-op without being sucked down another rabbit hole. Furthermore, while The Jump will always be free to use, it’s completely ad free. If you want your co-op on a platform free of distractions, The Jump is your destination. 

Reason 4: rely on a platform that values you first

Since advertisers pay social media companies billions of dollars to market on their platforms, social media is designed to cater to advertisers’ needs first. For the user, that means that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others programs mine every piece of user data imaginable and then sell it to advertisers. On The Jump, people are the first priority. Since the app is completely ad free, your data will never be sold out to the highest bidder and you won’t ever have to dodge predatory ads. The Jump’s goal is to support what you’re already doing in real life, all while respecting privacy and giving users the tools they need to build a healthy community. 

If you’d like to learn more, check The Jump out at thejump.com or visit The Jump’s YouTube channel.

Written by

Amaris Kirby

Why is social media so addictive?

The short answer: It was designed to be this way. Every social media company in existence (with the exception of The Jump) makes more money when people spend more time on their website. The longer users are on social media, the more digital ads they can be shown. The answer to this crisis is not to get rid of social media, but to use platforms that promote responsibility. Read on if you want to learn about the dangers of social media addiction and The Jump, which is a healthy alternative.

Social media companies are trying to addict their users

Facebook’s Founding President Sean Parker recently opened up about Facebook’s retention strategy.

In an unusually candid statement, Parker explained that the main objective while building Facebook was: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” That mindset led to the creation of features such as the “Like” button, because Facebook creators knew “Likes” would give users dopamine hits, encouraging them to post even more. “It’s a social-validation feedback loop,” Parker said, “…exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. ..[Social Media] literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. … .

God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains

Parker is just one in the original generation of tech innovator’s to start questioning the ethics of the software that he helped develop. Recently, The Guardian published an article entitled ‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia. The article profiled multiple founding designers of big tech who have since rejected the use of Facebook and Google products. The individuals profiled include:

Justin Rosenstein, the Facebook engineer who first created the “Like” button:

Rosenstein, “tweaked his laptop’s operating system to block Reddit, banned himself from Snapchat, which he compares to heroin, and imposed limits on his use of Facebook.”

Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, is now alerting people to the effects that big tech is having on them psychologically:

Harris said, “All of us are jacked into this system… All of our minds can be hijacked. Our choices are not as free as we think they are … A handful of people, working at a handful of technology companies, through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today

I don’t know a more urgent problem than this

It’s changing our democracy, and it’s changing our ability to have the conversations and relationships that we want with each other.”

Social media companies are successfully addicting their users

Companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter have succeeded. The average person spends nearly nearly 2 hours per day on social media, which means that they’ll spend 5 years and 4 months of their life engaging with people on a screen instead of in real life. In that same time period, someone could run 10,000 marathons, walk around the world nearly twice, or travel to the moon and back 32 times.

Here’s a few more statistics that put the current crisis in perspective…

• There are 3.1 billion social media users worldwide. That’s 40.3% of the world’s population.
• Some teens consume up to 9 hours of social media per day.
• An estimated 210 million people suffer from social media addiction.
• Teens who spend 5 hours per day on their phone are twice as likely to show depressive symptoms.
• Young, single females are addicted to social media more than any other group.
• 71% of people sleep near their phone.
• 50% of people who drive while looking at their mobile device are checking social media.
• Over 240 Million Americans check Facebook daily. To put that number in perspective, there are only 329 Million people in the US.
• The social media addiction crisis is only continuing to get worse every year. If this issue remains unaddressed, social media companies will continue to thrive by exploiting psychological vulnerabilities in their users.

The Jump is different. We don’t use psychological manipulation to keep you on our app. Would we like you to use the app? Duh. Of course. But the app is meant to be used sparingly so that you can focus on connecting with people for real! The Jump is supposed to support what you are doing in real life, not draw you away from it.

Different revenue model

The Jump can afford to swim upstream because our revenue model is fundamentally different. Other companies make more money when they’re able to show you more advertisements. However, The Jump doesn’t make money from digital ads, which means that our goal is to give you the best product, not consume your time.

The Jump’s structure limits the potential for addiction

Internet addiction is one of the most dangerous forms of addiction because there is always more content that users can access. With a drug or alcohol addiction, there’s a limit to how much the addict can consume. Eventually, the addict is going to run out of money. Yet, on social media and the internet, companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are always working to fill a user’s feed with more content. The Jump is different because it has natural limits on the ability of users to find more content. The Jump is about connecting with real people, not wasting time. There are limits on how many authentic relationships you can have and therefore, there are limits on what you can do on The Jump.

Most other platforms cramp every post into one, centralized feed. This creates an endless, emotional rollercoaster — “someone had a baby!” “everyone is dying” “cute cats” “political rampage.” Conversely, The Jump has no centralized feed. Since content can only be posted by users that are members of a given jump, there isn’t an incessant supply of posts.

Additionally, The Jump doesn’t give users the ability to stalk one another. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites have devolved into spaces where people create profiles to advertise themselves to the world.

The Jump is about connecting, not showcasing a facade

As a result, if you look someone up on The Jump, you’ll only see their profile picture, their name, a one sentence note about them, and the jumps that they are apart of. This forces users to join groups in order to connect with other people.

Leslie Walker, a professor at the University of Maryland, defined a social networking addict as, “someone with a compulsion to use social media to excess — constantly checking Facebook status updates or “stalking” people’s profiles on Facebook, for example, for hours on end.” Yet, on The Jump, there’s no centralized feed and no ability to stalk other users. There’s built in limits on the exact functions that have oftentimes led to media addictions on other platforms.

So if you still want the benefits of social media without as many opportunities for addiction, try out The Jump. The Jump is a way to harness the positives of social networking while getting rid of the negatives.

Written by

Michael Patton