My 2-year-old son loves to swap faces.
He calls all Snapchat face filters “face swap,” actually.
He crawls into my lap with my phone and yells “Do face swap! Do face swap!”
Then he opens Snapchat and mashes the face filter buttons until he finds one that makes him scream-laugh. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” he shouts with his head thrown back when he sees his face bloat, vomit rainbows or turn into a Viking.
At 2 years old, he doesn’t care how many active users Snapchat has or how it’s finally harnessing the technological promise of Augmented Reality. He just likes to make silly faces.
This is the real genius of Snapchat. It’s that it brings out the innate 2-year-old in all of us that just wants to act weird with those closest to us.
Watching my 2-year-old with Snapchat and now my 6-year-old with Pokémon Go has given me new perspective on why these apps are crazy popular.
They’re not popular because they’re doing amazing things with technology, much of which like QR codes and Google Maps has been around for years.
They’re also not popular because today’s kids are any different than previous generations or are addicted to their smartphones.
They’re especially not popular because they’re creating any new type of behavior.
Rather, they’re popular because they make it easy to do what we’ve always done. They put a modern twist on ancient desires.
Think about ancient cave drawings, for instance. What are they doing? They’re harnessing tools and hunting in groups. Even when they weren’t out hunting, they’re communicating about hunting. Remind you of anything?
This, in a nutshell, is the appeal of Pokémon Go. It’s the thrill of the hunt. We crave it. Today we may go to the grocery store for our food, but the desire to track and capture is no less real.
When you see groups of teenagers roaming around, you are seeing modern day caveman drawings come to life. Now instead of hunting down buffalo, we’re looking for Pokémon.
This drive to hunt might be seen as some vestigial need that’s no longer all that relevant for survival. Or is it? Pokémon Go is getting people to bond, get outdoors, increase their exercise and even meet other “friendly tribes.”
The journey and the social aspect of pack hunting might be just as important as what you’re searching for.
Over the last decade, smartphones have been viewed as amazing technology and also a guilty pleasure or necessary evil. They distract us from “real life.” They cause us to go inward instead of outward. But we can’t put them down as we head down this path of technology taking over our lives.
But maybe with Snapchat and Pokémon Go, we’re starting to see a shift — to something old. We’re seeing apps that tap into our ancient beginnings.
Snapchat and Pokémon Go are about immersing yourself in your environment. They’re about being part of a pack. They’re about sharing goofy moments where you let your guard down.
That’s something even a 2-year-old can understand.
