The Ephemeral Art of the Snap
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” -Scott Adams
I was born in 1982, so technically, I am a millennial. Being on the older side of the spectrum, I can still remember life before the digital revolution. I had a pager in high school (143!) and first learned about Google in college. Now, I am similar to most my fellow millennials as far as technology use goes. I reach for my smartphone every time I have a disagreement with my friends (especially when I am right), I check Twitter a few times a day (ok, maybe dozens) and I have a Netflix account (or at least my mom does) instead of a cable subscription.
But there has been a digital trend that I found myself, and anyone else in my age group of above, having a hard time understanding. Snapchat. I struggled to wrap my head around posts that delete into thin air or the quick videos about, well, nothing.
In order to better understand this new social media behemoth I started asking all the young people I know (and that would look up from their phones long enough to talk to me) about how they use Snapchat. What I found out is that the new generation of mobile apps like Snapchat embody a shift in how younger generations use the internet. What older generations fail to understand is not to be dismissed, but instead is the very reason why the digital future, and the future in general, is so bright.
The first thing that any Snapchat user will see upon opening the app is a camera screen. Front and center is the shutter button, instantly giving a Snapchatter the option to take and share a photo or video (and maybe add a dog’s nose to anyone in the shot). Here we see a fundamental difference from other, more widely understood social media sites like Facebook. Most social media interfaces go immediately to a list of other people’s content. There is a small box at the top of the screen that can be clicked for generating new content, but it feels more like an afterthought to the “news” feed (I am using the word news in its lightest sense). Pier driven content feeds are a powerful tool for information discovery, something we all need and benefit from, but it differs from Snapchat in a very important way.
Facebook is a tool for curation, Snapchat is a tool for creation. Snapchat is more nurturing to the creative process in a number of ways.
How many times have you done this: hastily written a thought in the “what’s on your mind” bar on Facebook, only to immediately reconsider and delete? Facebook pushes anything I post into the eyeballs of practically everyone I have ever met. That is a big commitment for my random rant about the poor distribution of the content of a burrito (seriously though, spread it out lengthwise!).
Snapchat, on the other hand puts my “story” under my profile, for a finite amount of time, where someone has to actively search me out to see it. This, coupled with the fact that there is a good chance that no Snapchatters’ older relatives have accounts, make posting something a lot less stressful.
In short, it entices creativity by allowing for mistakes. As the great Ira Glass points out in this video, the hardest part of learning a creative process is overcoming the gap between good taste and talent. We are critics fist, creators second. Pushing through the early stages of creativity is surprisingly hard, especially when everyone is watching.
Gen Z, the generation after Millennials is defined by someone born after 1996. They are the first generation that doesn’t know the world before the internet; “digital natives”. They have flocked to Snapchat fast enough to give it the distinction of being the fastest growing social media platform ever. The recent IPO of Snapchat’s parent company Snap has been all over the news and is predicted to transform Santa Monica into a technology hub (silicon beach does have a nice ring about it). This is quite an achievement for a company without one person I know over 35 as an active user.
So, what is it about the “kids these days” of the day? What is different about them that makes Snapchat resonate so uniquely?.
Apparently, this concept of creation for destruction isn’t new. It has metaphorical parallels to temporary art installments or monks that spend hours drawing mandalas with chalk grain by grain, only to walk over it once it is done.
I know what you are thinking, “How can he even compare what my niece does on Snapchat to art?” While I admit that a selfie taken with a zany filter might never make be a permanent exhibit at an art museum, I rebut by saying that the important part of most creative endeavors is the product, not the process. They are learning how to think creatively, one distorted selfie at a time.
Studies have shown that Gen Zers are more likely to teach themselves creative skills. They have found a solution to the impending shift towards automation. The loss of factory jobs has created political turmoil in the western world, but it is only the beginning. Automated service trucks are expected to come before cars, a scary thought when coupled with this data showing that trucking is the most common occupation in most U.S. states. With advances in artificial intelligence, even skilled jobs are not safe. Engineering, law, real estate, finance, accounting; all have repetitive tasks well suited for learned machines. Humans will not be replaced necessarily, but a smaller number will be able to do more of the work, creating greater inequity.
Not to fear. The future generations will be fine. The only skill that will matter, the only skill that we will always be better at than software, is creation. In fact, software will make us increasingly better at creation. Snapchat is paving the way, but other tech companies are starting to find ways to assist creation. I recently noticed an “explore” feature on Google docs that analyses what is being written and produces related articles and clipart in real time.
After doing my research, I noticed a polarization of thought about Snapchat demarcated by age group. Young people light up when they talk about it, older people act disgusted. Why? We should be embracing the fact that our youth is passionate about a creative tool. Gen Xers have no problem watching hours of television (Netflix still counts!) but look down on tweens for spending all their free time on the phone. They are creating something with their cognitive surplus, a term a learned from this TED talk by Clay Shirky. He makes the astute observation that even the lowest form of creation, he used “Lol cats” as his example, is more important than merely consuming media.
An added benefit to my research is a new found channel for communicating with my younger relatives. They send me snaps more often than they have ever called or texted. I just hope that the un-hipness of my age doesn’t take away from the freewheeling creative ecosystem that Snapchat has created. Likewise, Snapchat better hope that older generations adoption doesn’t derail the amazing engagement of its highly sought after core users, the young and bored.
