14 November,2021 06:45 AM IST | Mumbai | Aastha Atray Banan
Pic/Getty Images
Thirteen-year-old Zoha Khan got on Discord in January this year as she wanted to play the online horror game, Among Us, with her cousins. "They told me about it, and it was a good idea, as it is a communication platform which enables overlay, and we didn't need to switch apps to chat," says the Kurla resident. Confused? Well, overlay is a Discord graphical layer that can be added to some games that enables you to interact with Discord while playing. And now, after talking to her cousins and friends on voice chat and text, she has been enjoying it so much that she is a regular on the app.
For the uninitiated, Discord is a VoIP, instant messaging and digital distribution platform, where users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called âservers'. As of 2021, the service has over 350 million registered users, and over 150 million monthly active users. Most of them are pretty young - anywhere from 13 to 25 years old. When this writer, who is a ripe 39, installed it, it baffled her with its layout and interface, so much so that she quit even before she really started. But for these teen social natives, it's a maze that they navigate seamlessly every day.
Khan for now, is also part of a One Direction server, and has made friends across the world. They chat about the band of course, but also just about life in general. Last month, a bunch of teens from Badlapur, who were chatting about how they were upset with their parents, used Discord to hatch a plan to run away. They eventually arrived in Goa, where their plan included posing as orphans and somehow getting to America, where they could deal in Bitcoin. They were eventually sent back home by the Mumbai Police.
When we ask Khan about how she keeps away from trouble on the app, which has no parental controls, she is pretty sorted in her reply. "I have a completely different persona on Discord, and I don't reveal any personal information." Ask her what if a 50-year-old man was talking to her posing as someone else? How would she know? To which she says that she is particularly vigilant.
"I make sure other people are also talking to people I am talking to, and we do voice calls, so we get to know each other. Also, I tell mom and dad about everyone I speak to."
Discord has been facing flak as at this time, it doesn't offer parental controls, so there's no way for parents to restrict content or password-protect the privacy settings within the app. But, as Gautam Mengle, executive editor, CySpy India, says, "If something has to go wrong, it can go wrong anywhere. I think parents just need to tell children what is dangerous and what is not, and hope that they get it. It depends on the child. Many are also using it to learn positive things like new languages."
Although Discord was typically associated with online gamers, it's now also home to many communities which talk about various other projects. Varun Mayya, digital content creator and founder and CEO of Scenes by Avalon, started off on Discord in January last year, says "We had people talking about COVID-19, sharing their fears, and also philosophy. It was a smattering of many types of conversations." Mayya eventually moved on to his own social network as holding events on Discord was proving to be tough.
"It has a problem with sharing files and such." But he understands why teens may be liking it - "there is a question of identity, we have splintered personalities. We are different online than we are in real life, and that appeals to them," he adds.
In 2021, it has also been used widely by creators of all kinds to build their tribe. Comics like Tanmay Bhatt and Rohan Joshi have had active servers, and so has indie musician Dhruv Visvanath. "My focus was to build a community and chat with people. And, we started talking about mental health, sports, life, and video games. The main aim was to keep it free of judgment and politics," says Visvanath, who also does a weekly live audio newsletter, chatting with his friends about anything that he could be thinking about that week, and his followers tune in. "Content is eventually king, and as a creator, you have to take care of creating a space. Now, it's fundamental to my work, and I even run my Patreon service on it, so it's been a great support."
Like Visvanath, gamer Mansi Gupta uses Discord to "genuinely" connect with her audience. "It's very tight-knit and I am vulnerable to my 12,000 followers. I chat about life, or express disappointment if anything goes wrong at work. They always motivate me. I even use it as a place to get feedback - for example, I log on one day before I am putting up content and may even ask my followers to vote on what thumbnail I should upload. It may not have many parental controls, but it does have enough - if anyone is disturbing the peace or being problematic, they are blocked right away."
It is Khan, though, who sums it up when she says that she feels Discord is just a way to while away time when she is bored, and to talk to people from all around the world. But when it comes to meeting any of her online friends, her answer is a big fat no. "It's best I let my online persona interact with everyone online."
