Snapchat: A Platform to Inform and Unite The Next Generation of Voters
In this modern and fast-paced society that technology has ushered us into, college students and young adults represent the future of the nation. Being one of many young adults/college students who has had the chance to vote in what people are calling the most “historic” and “controversial” election in U.S. history, I have had the opportunity to delve deeper into how politics drive the nation, through social media. Snapchat, a multimedia platform, has done a particularly good job of bringing college students and young adults into the political sphere this election season. The application has provided students information about the candidates and their policies without us ever having to pick up a newspaper or turn on CNN. It has also united universities across the nation through publicly voiced ideas and similar feelings regarding what has taken place these stressful last several months.
Developed by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, Snapchat was created as an image messaging application where people could send one another photos with writing or filters that would disappear after several seconds, essentially creating a more personal way of texting. Nevertheless, Snapchat has evolved since then with iterations containing new and improved features. One of the application’s hallmark features is its “public story” feature. By allowing users across the country to send in short 10 second photos or videos, Snapchat can make a “public story” that compiles all of the submissions based on a topic or event into a single stream viewable to the public snapchat audience.
As a social media platform, Snapchat has around 150 million daily users. Because of its widespread use, Snapchat’s public stories became an outlet of political information during the election season where those who were rather politically uneducated could become informed by watching clips of the candidates and their supporters, and hearing their different views. In my opinion, Snapchat has done an excellent job of informing the typical college student and uniting college voters.
Here’s how Snapchat did it
Following the start of the 2016 Presidential Race, Snapchat began their election coverage by broadcasting the rallies and speeches of the primaries. By creating montages from submitted videos such as clips of speeches and debates, the views and goals of each presidential nominee were public to users. Because the primary users of Snapchat are young adults, college students, and those who had never voted before, this media platform contributed to helping expose them to the political world for the first time. In what seemed like an intentional tactic to keep people up-to-date with the political standings, these stories were always sorted near the top of one’s story feed.
Once Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were selected as the presidential nominees of their respective parties, Snapchat had a field day ramping up its content relating to the general election. What many perceived as Snapchat acting as just another conduit for political media was actually Snapchat advertising U.S. politics to the entire college student population. It sought to specifically target my generation for good reason. We live in a democratic republic where the right to vote is a treasured characteristic of our nation. As a result, each generation, in my opinion, sees it necessary to ensure the next is politically aware, since the future of the country will one day rest in their hands.
Students like myself were sucked into the political culture when Snapchat created its Presidential Debate series. This consisted of stories that documented the live action of each of the three debates and highlighted the key policies of either candidate. While each debate took place, another story was published that documented the reactions of college students to each of the candidate’s ideas and rhetoric. Students from colleges all across the nation tuned in to listen to and express their opinions to people their own age. Whether it was venting, laughing at a candidate’s remarks, discussing ideas, or merely watching the debate, college students across the country were able to share in the experience of being a part of an election and hearing what other people had to say.
Snapchat successfully got students to rally around each other during a critical time in our nation’s history. By allowing students like myself from schools like UC Berkeley, Ohio State and Brown University to communicate and publicly share their thoughts, the social media platform brought students from all walks of life representing either party together to discuss politics in a non-violent, online manner. Not only did Snapchat host a space that allowed colleges to interact, it also educated students who were less-informed about the way the government is run, who the two candidates were, their personal backgrounds, and why the student should vote for either one, instead of going to the polling station on election day and randomly voting or not voting at all. These stories became a revolutionary platform from which a new voting generation could dive deeper into politics than ever before.
