Human Social Media

No species has become quite as invested in social media as humanity has, and the human tradition of writing about what you've done that's critically important and must be shown to the world writ large stretches back upwards of four centuries. Titanic corporations (though not nearly as large as today's megacorporations) have made their fortunes and been brought crashing down by the whims of humanity's intrinsic self-interest and vanity, though the social media market of the present day is dominated by Idris Incorporated. Social media remains as popular as it has ever been in human space, and many platforms have spread well beyond human-controlled space to the far corners of the Orion Spur. The below platforms are a few that a character working on the Aurora may encounter in the course of their day-to-day life.

Chirper

Chirper is, without a doubt, the largest current social media platform to exist in the Orion Spur and has dominated the social media marketplace for nearly fifty years, despite being banned in the People's Republic of Adhomai due to "potentially subversive content," along with many other social media platforms. Chirper is deliberately designed to be easy to access for the average denizen of the Orion Spur and setting up an account is exceedingly easy. This, along with its catchy design (in Idris teal and blue) and and convenient advertising space, have helped contribute to its ongoing domination of the social media field. Posts on Chirper are referred to as "Chirps," and users can post "ChirpChains" in order to tell a story. Idris Incorporated employees are issued a Chirper account linked to their employee ID number upon beginning work with the corporation, and these accounts have greater privileges than normal ones - though most are monitored for anti-Idris sentiment.

Holo-Dive

Holo-Dive is often regarded as the fancier version of Chirper, and is an unusual merger of a social media platform and a MMORPG. The platform/game is run by Idris Incorporated in cooperation with several Elyran virtual reality firms and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals (responsible for designing the Holo-Dive neural link), and is based around users creating an avatar to "dive" through the platform as they live out their lives in ways they would likely never be able to in reality. Users are free to create whatever they desire for their avatar, which has led to issues in the Empire of Dominia due to the Empire's stance on synthetic life that were ultimately resolved with the creation of a censored version for the Dominian market. The barrier for entry limits Holo-Dive's main market to well-developed space, but within this region access to it is typically not too difficult: all one needs to access it is an Idris VR station, neural link, or VR-suit alongside a valid copy of the program. The late 2461s saw a rollout of non-VR Holo-Dive clients, to mixed commercial success. Holo-Dive is very popular with families spread across the Orion Spur, as it allows them to interact with one another as if they were right next to one another rather than light-years apart.

64tan

64tan is a "privately-owned" alternative social media platform based around many different boards in which all users are deliberately anonymous. While anarchic and barely moderated at the best of times, 64tan remains one of the last non-corporate-owned social media platforms. 64tan is well-known for the wild conspiracies that originate on it, ranging from theories as mundane as monsters in sewers to outlandish as implying Prime Minister Frost was assassinated by Miranda Trasen herself. A recent - and utterly baseless - conspiracy theory is that NanoTrasen assassinates politicians in the Republic of Biesel that do not promote its interests. This is, of course, absolutely not true. Nobody knows who - or what - owns 64tan, and the identity of its true owner has become the subject of immense speculation by its users. Some theorize that it may be a wealthy and bored CEO somewhere in the Solarian Jewel Worlds, while others theorize that it may be a slightly insane Zhan-Khazan tajara living in the frozen wastelands of Adhomai. Regardless of whomever owns it, 64tan remains free - if chaotic.

NT-IRC

While modern social media is often designed to be flashy and functional, text chatting is truly the trend that will never die. NT-IRC is perhaps even more widely used than Chirper due to its ease of setup, but is hardly a great source of income for the NanoTrasen Corporation. The client is installed in most (perhaps all) NanoTrasen facilities alongside NTNet and is commonly utilized by employees of the corporation. NT-IRC has an infamously short range, with users typically losing connection to most servers quickly after they leave their workplace. The chat program is also fairly featureless, with users unable to even change their screen name from what is written on their identification card. Despite this, a licensed version of NT-IRC can often be found in less developed regions of the Orion Spur that lack the infrastructure for more advanced programs.