Our Place is an app created by Louise Palanker that gives tweens and teens a place to talk and post about issues in their lives that they may be uncomfortable discussing with parents or even friends. I’ve spent the last few weeks browsing and exploring all of the interesting chat rooms that the app has to offer. I’ve seen some interesting and helpful discussions and had some great conversations with people while using Our Place.
Our Place is a Social and Support and Creativity Network for Teens and Tweens, featuring expert advice from Teen Specialist, Louise Palanker
Our Place is designed to encourage and reward Cyber Kindness, cooperation, and compassion.
At Our Place, teens are talking about: life, love, boys, girls, dating, flirting, friends, bullies, parents, school, family, gay issues, puberty, sex, fears, depression, dramas and dreams. The more advice you give and receive, the more awesome you will feel about yourself and your place in the world.
The layout of the app is very easy to navigate. I really like that the “Courtyard” is broken down into so many sections. It gives you the ability to find what kind of topics you want to discuss, whether they are serious and personal or more of a fun chat. The advice section is always crawling with users who are ready and willing to talk about issues that you may have. It’s divided into Friends/Peers/Bullies, Dating/Romance/Crushes, Family, Gay/Lesbian/Bi, and more. This allows you to put your question in a section where people are comfortable reading about and responding to those types of issues. You might even find someone with a problem similar to your own. Everyone on the app is incredibly helpful and respectful. Anyone who is found being rude or inappropriate is stopped by moderators before it gets out of hand. The moderators do a great job of maintaining civil conversation on Our Place.
Advice isn’t all that the app is good for though. The chat and creativity sections are full of activity and conversation amongst users. Teens can post stories and poetry that they have written and share it with others. This way, aspiring writers can get feedback and new ideas for their writing. It’s a great supportive community with lots of kids getting the advice and guidance that they need.
There are just a few things that bothered me while using the app. I commented on a thread but lost it when I came back a few days later to check for any updates. There doesn’t seem to be any method of marking the threads that you want to be updated on. Also, personal photos aren’t an option for your profile picture. I’m sure they don’t allow them for privacy reasons but when multiple users pick the same picture of Justin Beiber as their icon and then comment on the same thread, it can get pretty confusing. Other than that though, I really enjoy the app will continue using it.
Our Place is a FREE app available on the iTunes platform.
