Have you ever sent a Snap? Have you ever received one? Do you even know what I am talking about?
Snap is what you do on Snapchat. Most people have heard of this picture messaging app and automatically think of teenagers, because, let’s be honest, teens are the ones snapping most. I have a few students who have to take multiple selfies in one class period and I have no doubt they are sending a Snap message to a friend, who is also in class somewhere and who also should be paying attention instead of staring at the phone that they have so sneakingly stashed in their crotch area. (No really, they think they are sneaky, I just think they are weird.)
So, you have heard of Snapchat, but do you know anything besides the “disappearing” pictures or the fact that teens love it? Maybe it is so bizarre to you, that, like me, you never had the desire to learn about it.
Well, here are five things that you have wanted to know about Snapchat but didn’t know until today that you actually wanted to know them.
Snapchat Beginnings:
Snapchat Inc. met its beginning in July 2011. Three friends, who were attending Stanford, came up with the idea. Well, actually two, Reggie Brown and Evan Spiegel launched the idea and asked Bobby Murphy to write to code for them. Their idea sprang from the idea that people were worried that their bosses may see embarrassing pictures that they posted on Facebook. The trio thought that if there was a spot to share those often embarrassing but entertaining photos without the permanence of Facebook, it would be appreciated.
Daily Use of Snapchat
Little did the three creators know that not only would Snapchat be appreciated, but that it would be used by 238 million people daily. Each day each active user opens the app over thirty times a day, sends on average 35 messages and spends about 50 minutes within the app.
What exactly are these people doing within the app with all that time?
The main thing people do while using Snapchat is to send “Snaps” to their friends. A Snap is basically a photo or video that lasts on the recipient's screen for a maximum of ten seconds and then it “disappears”(of course, anybody can screenshot these images making them not disappear). Users can also post a “Story” which is a maximum 10 second video or photo that appears on their profile for the next twenty-four hours. (If you are using Instagram or Facebook, both of these have borrowed this concept from Snapchat). There is also a “Discover” page within Snapchat, which is much like a news page, where popular user’s and advertisers' content is posted.
Why do teens love Snapchat so much?
There are a few things that draw teens to this app. One of the biggest draws really is that everybody is doing it. A few of the teens I talked to actually said that they use Snapchat to not only send pictures back and forth but for many of them it actually is where they send text messages the most. This isn’t surprising because texting via Snapchat makes it harder for parents to see what they have been sending(their messages disappear after being read) and they can send videos and pictures to friends a little more conveniently than through regular text messaging.
What are some things that are controversial about Snapchat?
From an adult standpoint, lots of what Snapchat is all about is a bit controversial. But some specifics are very controversial. For starters, Snapchat’s Discover Page, which is accessed by swiping left from the home screen, is a place for all sorts of questionable content. Content from people, publishers, companies, and other users can randomly pop up. And this content isn’t always appropriate especially for teens and young people. It is like a huge page of random stuff and there really isn’t much control over what content shows up.
Snapchat also has a Snapmap, which is a place where users can share their location with their friends. Obviously, having everybody know where you are can be a bad thing, especially if a teen makes friends with people they don’t even know in real life, like the creepy guy who is also a predator.
A little less creepy but still a little concerning is a feature called “Our Story” which users can submit their stories to and Snapchat chooses which content is shown to all of Snapchat. In order to submit to “Our Story”, you must have your Snapmap enabled, basically showing your location to anybody who happens to see your content, which through “Our Stories” can be seen by any Snapchat user.
Probably the controversial part of Snapchat for parents is the “For My Eyes Only” folder. Here, users can save content and nobody can see it but them, literally. It is password protected and encrypted. Even if the user forgets the password, it is so protected that even Snapchat can’t help get the encrypted content back. So, if you are the parent, and you are trying to keep an eye on what your kids are doing on Snapchat, you can’t access this section.
One of the most interesting things I learned about in my searching was that there actually is pay for content on Snapchat. Here users can set up extra content that is only seen by paying users. Hello, this is an instant opening for Porn content. I bet Snapchat is making lots of money for some of these pay for content users.
So there you have it. Everything you didn’t think you needed to know about Snapchat. If you feel like doing anymore research yourself, here are a few of the websites I visited:
https://www.snap.com/en-US/privacy/privacy-by-product
https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-is-snapchat-and-its-use-1270338
https://www.snap.com/en-US/
https://www.netnanny.com/blog/five-things-every-parent-needs-to-know-about-snapchat/
