Those Darn Kids: Snapchat
Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Face Swapping
Those Darn Kids, snapping and chatting about their pokingmans. In the old days, you just needed an artsy picture of dinner. Now there’s puppy tounges and face offing and rainbow throwup and I just don’t get it anymore. Bah!
Welcome old timers to the debut of Those Darn Kids, a semi-regular column where I try (and fail) to understand new (to me) trends. This week we look at the most confounding of social networks, Snapchat. This is based off me messing with it the past month and a fair amount of Googling. I’m not a typical user by any stretch, so it’s just my perspective, for whatever that’s worth.
So, what the heck is Snapchat?
In 3 words, Facebook for millennials.
In 13 words, an app that allows you to share videos and pictures with your friends.
In more words, it’s like Facebook, but only for images. So, like Instagram, except your posts disappear after 24 hours. Plus, there are funny stickers and filters that let you vomit rainbows or swap faces with the person beside you.
Oh, and 60% of its users are 24 or under. You know, Those Darn Kids (TM).
But why is it so popular? It sounds stupid.
Say you see this sorta funny/interesting thing, so you take a picture to show your friends. It’s a just quick pic, so it doesn’t need to last forever. It’s definitely not worth putting in an album to show off. Albums are for wedding pictures or vacations at the Grand Canyon. This is just something you’re going to forgot about in a week, so it’s OK for it to go away. For extra fun, you might even doodle on it or use some wacky stickers.
Of course, I’m talking about the once popular and always fading Polaroid (the original, not the phone cover kind). Or maybe I’m talking about photo booths. Or funhouse mirrors. Anything that’s stupid randomness with friends.
That’s why Snapchat is popular.
Well, that and naked selfies.
But that was a while ago. Snapchat’s changed a lot since those days, which has made it a lot more popular. That’s kind of the problem, actually.
Because here’s the funny thing:
Snapchat is dead.
I’m technically a millennial — but I’m also a 30+ married homeowner, so if I’ve started using a social network, it’s well on its way to boring, mainstream obsolescence.
I mean, NBC just announced they’re making short-form TV shows for it. Broadcast television thinks Snapchat is the future. Which means Snapchat is as dead as a pretty young white girl on Law & Order: SVU.
OK, why should I care then?
Because it’s only going to get more and more popular, even as it becomes less and less popular with Those Darn Kids (TM). Over 50% of new users are over the age of 24, yet its growth is still exploding.
If you’re reading this, you’ve either at least tried it, you’re curious about it, or you’re a sadomasochist that loves reading about things you hate (no judging), and you might have a few questions — like “Why is it so confusing?” or “Oh God, Snapchat is awful and kids are idiots. Where can I stock up on supplies that will keep my family safe from the inevitable selfie fueled, fire emoji memepocalypse?!”
In whatever case, since you’re here, let’s have fun killing this soon to be uncool thing together, shall we?
First, if you find Snapchat confusing, that’s not a problem, that’s the point.
If you type “how to use” into Google, Snapchat is the first thing that pops up. But this lack of clear labels and instruction is not a bug — it’s a feature. The app is actually designed to confuse newcomers.
By making it tough to learn and artificially increasing the barrier of entry, Snapchat succeeded in its first main goal: keeping parents off of it (aka, the #1 thing kids look for in a social network). Facebook did something similar by requiring college emails when it first started.
(BTW, if you’re looking for an how to guide on using it, there are plenty of other great articles for that. I only just learned how to delete a sticker the other day, so I’m not your guy.)
Unfortunately for a growing tech company, teenagers are fickle and aren’t an inexhaustible resource. And since apps gotta grow grow grow, that’s where everyone over the age of 30 comes in. Much like when Facebook opened up to everyone outside of college, Snapchat is starting a push into the safe, reliable waters of middle-age…ish.
Snapchat is getting ready to meet your mom.
Over the past few years, Snapchat has been cleaning itself up. It’s taken out the earlobe gauges and put on a nice collared shirt, because it wants to meet your parents. By most accounts, it’s doing a decent job of it: 35+ year olds are now signing up faster than teens, and that’s only going to accelerate.
From its beginnings as an illicit sexting app, Snapchat has slyly traded nude pics for puppy faces. It’s now safe enough that advertisers see it as a genuine money maker.
And the original safe-for-mom-and-dad social network has noticed: Facebook has repeatedly tried (and failed) to buy, copy, and steal what makes Snapchat popular with kids. Instagram Stories didn’t just appear from thin air.
It’s also not going anywhere: by many measurements, Snapchat is already the 2nd biggest social network, behind only Facebook.
Wonderful. Like I need another social network.
Well, you kinda do. Because I think Snapchat offers something incredibly worthwhile, and something that no other social network does: forgetfulness.
The fact that none of your posts last longer than 24 hours at first seems like a silly gimmick, but it’s actually brilliant, because…
Not everything deserves to live forever.
I’ve long thought the worst thing about growing up as a kid in the smartphone era is that all of your mistakes and awkwardness are put on display for the world to see. Forever.
While you can still delete stuff on Facebook or Instagram, you have to recognize what’s stupid or potentially harmful. Which is pretty much impossible as a teenager. At least, I know I was quite the idiot.
The world is now forever digital, and it doesn’t forget and forgive easily. Entire lives get ruined over stupid tweets or Facebook posts. It’s much harder to do that with Snapchat (sexting stupidity aside).
But even more than that, I actually think Snapchat promotes a more positive atmosphere than other social networks.
You don’t have to be perfect.
Spend even a little time on Snapchat and you’ll quickly realize something: the pictures suck. They’re way lower quality than your typical Instagram masterpiece, because the priorities are different: it’s more about the immediacy of sharing little moments, not preserving them for others to be jealous of.
At its very best, Snapchat acts as a corrective to the lie of the perfect Pintrest life. It’s not driven by likes, the heroin of Facebook. Or shares, like Twitter.
You’re free to be rougher around the edges. To be messier. To get weird.
And a weirder world sounds good to me.
