Twitter Moments & Snapchat Discover

Why they are my exclusive news source

Photo Credit- Olu Eletu

In a world of information overload, it’s tough to have just one trusted platform where you can learn about all of the important, daily happenings taking place. When I was younger, I never got into watching the news on TV (unless it was SportsCenter). As I’ve matured, I’ve become more interested in gaining a broader perspective of what is going on in the world currently.

As a millennial, I’ve grown up using social media since I was in 8th grade. During a span of roughly 10 years, I’ve seen a lot of different platforms come and go, while others have risen to great prominence amongst my peers. Every platform is meant to provide different ways to connect and share information. It just depends on your flavor.

For myself, I am the heaviest user on Twitter and Snapchat. They are both great ways to connect with my friends and influencers on real-time events. Recently, I have been trying to figure out the best way to get the most personalized, curated news for me in the shortest amount of time. That is why I am onboard with Twitter Moments and Snapchat Discover.

Twitter Moments might be the platform’s saving grace, as referenced upon its release in this Wired article back in October 2015. The thing I really like about the feature is its a highly curated source of the top stories in news and allows you to get a quick snapshot of all the important breaking headlines as a story unfolds. The real power in this is that Twitter is already the go-to source for breaking news and current events, so having a feature that condenses everything important into a clear, concise reading format is a game changer. It is the ultimate time saver, rather than scrolling through your news feed forever.

Snapchat Discover has a different twist on delivering great content and news by way of brands. Snapchat has always been very selective with who they allow to be featured and even remain on the platform. What makes Discover great is it incorporates a fun experience when consuming the news while letting the user have autonomy to choose how in-depth they want to learn about a particular topic. If I don’t care about what Johnny Manziel did last night in Las Vegas it’s as easy as swiping left, rather than on SportsCenter where they could go on for hours on end.

The main thing that both of these features have on the platform is short-form content and that is where I believe all news is headed in the near future. People nowadays have a lot shorter attention spans and with advances in technology, most people have higher expectations of curated content. Time is a non-renewable resource and the more effectively that news publications and brands alike create and develop their content around this principle, the more successful they will be.