It’s an ongoing trend to share your daily thoughts and actions on social media, but what if there was a platform that challenged you to powerfully express yourself in only six words?

That’s exactly what Iona alumni Marc Igneri, Stephen Wallace, Emily Pennachio and Jay Wegimont created along with the help of a few of their friends.

These four former Iona students created Zhong (Jhoong), which is a new social media platform that was inspired by Hemingway’s six worded story, ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn,’ as well as the Japanese style of poetry called Haiku. The app can be accessed with your Twitter account and will automatically hashtag “#sixwords” and tag “@zhongapp.”

The masterminds behind this project feel that there is too much “fluff” and not enough quality within posts on social media. As a result, they gave birth to Zhongapp.com, which they hope will spur creativity from its users.

“Building on the notion that most social networks discourage creativity, we felt it was important to distinguish Zhong’s app,” said the founders.

Zhong wants its users to write anything they want –stories, comedies, memoirs, quips, etc. Wallace highlights that Zhongapp.com is not meant to spark conversation, but instead to share thought-provoking pieces with intelligence behind them.

“Instead of posting a picture of your food on your timeline, be witty about what you ate in six words,” said Wallace.

The Ionian sat down for an interview with four of the six Zhong founders to discover their story on how Zhongapp.com started and to share the founders’ advice on how to make any innovative idea into a reality.

IONIAN: How long has Zhongapp.com been active and ready to use?

MARC: It’s been active for three months now. We launched it in early December, but we’re still playing around with it.

I: Other than Hemingway and Haiku, what inspired all of you, particularly the Iona alumni, to start Zhong?

Stephen: Marc actually came to me with this idea because he had read about Taoism, which introduced him to Zhong. Zhong means “centered,” “bulls-eye,” “middle” and “heaviness.”

M: What sparked the six-worded posts came from Honest Tea’s six worded memoirs on their bottle caps.

I: Was it hard mixing business with friendship?

M: When you work with your peers, your ego tends to be bigger than normal. Society makes us believe that we need to be part of a large company, but when you want to execute something you’ve created, you make sacrifices and go with the flow.

S: You need thick skin; you can’t see criticism as someone attacking you. If you’re doing the critiquing, you have to make sure it’s constructive.

Jay: You have to be honest with yourself and your team while putting your heart and effort into your project. There may be one hard day, but there’s always the next day.

Emily: You need to communicate with each other and be extremely patient with one another.

I: What can you give the Iona community about following through on an innovative idea?

S: Focus! Whatever your goal is, make sure it’s your chief aim. Recite it every night and have perseverance.

On Twitter, Zhong currently has 527 followers and 170 signups on their website. Wegimont discovered that users who have hashtagged “#AMwriting” have started using Zhong through Twitter and the website.

Wallace and the other founders are reaching out to colleges in the northeast, as well as Iona, and suggesting that professors utilize the Zhong app as a homework assignment in English classes.

Pennachio believes Zhong will help improve students’ vocabulary as it did hers. Wallace hopes to help kids write with power while having fun.