Why I love Snapchat • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#141

Post by ocean3 » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 5:41 AM UTC

tomasien wrote: post #138

goldenchrome wrote: post #62

I don't know what to say. I think OP did a good job of explaining what makes Snapchat so great, but their initial confusion and the confusion from the commenters within this thread boggles me. Recently I was in a room with a well-known VC who wouldn't believe a college student who said that they enjoy using Snapchat, as if they couldn't comprehend how anyone would like it. Virtually all the comments are about how Sna…

Snapchat is the most important social network right now among my friends. I'm 27 (so not core Snapchat demo but close) and very few of my friends work in tech. It's massive. Instagram and Facebook are both close, but if something is happening there's a 5x better chance someone is going to Snap it than Insta it and 50x chance they'll Snap it than do anything with it on FB.

I assume in US? Here in India i doubt many know if there is something called Snapchat or even Instagram. Everyone's on WhatsApp.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#142

Post by nottheissue » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 5:45 AM UTC

mgalka wrote: post #139

nottheissue wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This appeal to the morality of empathy is actually not relevant to either the discussion or your comment. >This kind of empathy with others will make you much more effective when you're creating for people who are not like you. What you are describing is the action of gaining knowledge of other's likes/dislikes. This can be done entirely robotically i.e. completely without emotion. Knowing about others is only a part…

You should reread the comment. It doesn't say everyone needs to use Snapchat, just don't insist it's stupid merely because you don't understand it.

I never called anything stupid. Nor is it the case that I don't understand the comment. You actually pointed out no problem with my comment specifically, you merely accused me of "not understanding" and needing to "reread" the comment. How very unempathetic and condescending of you.

I also never said that the comment was saying that "everyone needs to use snapchat".

Maybe you should either address specific points made in someone else's comment or avoid being outright rude in an otherwise intellectual and civil discussion? Just a thought.

EDIT: I also would expect discussions on a site like this to not devolve to false dichotomies of either total agreement or total disagreement with someone else's position (comment).

If you read my comment carefully you will easily discern that my focus is on the lack of necessity for bringing an appeal to "empathy" into the discussion.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#143

Post by jandrese » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 5:49 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #128

nmat wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bad UI generates a sort of viral effect. I know a lot of young kids who use snapchat and often the conversation starts with 'How did you do that effect on that video?' or 'How do you send a text message without a picture?'. Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere. I am not saying that it is a good thing, but it makes people talk about it.

Same is probably true of Minecraft where people (especially early on) learn of things to craft, tactics to use, the best ways to farm or mine or whatever.

So you're saying to use Snapchat well you need to have a bookmarked link to the Wiki available at all times?

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#144

Post by ocean3 » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:05 AM UTC

zo7 wrote: post #108

jmduke wrote: post #25

I was about to make a snarky comment disagreeing with Justin -- as one of those folks who can't deal with Snapchat, I think it's a weird encapsulation of a lot of my complaints of newer social apps. The UX feels deliberately confusing and disorienting; it promotes a culture of manufactured intimacy; I have to deal with a bunch of software developers thinking they're hip by saying 'bless up' and flooding their social…

Just to clarify, the "social dick-measuring contest" the author was referring to is being able to see how many followers or friend a user has. I can look up how many followers some celebrity has on Twitter or compare how many friends I have with another friend on Facebook, but I have no idea how many followers DJ Khaled or any of my friends have on Snapchat. You can friend celebrities or brands on Snapchat if you wan…

No mechanism to find popular users and no friend count seems like less pressure to look hip.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#145

Post by huac » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:10 AM UTC

dorian-graph wrote: post #120

nmat wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bad UI generates a sort of viral effect. I know a lot of young kids who use snapchat and often the conversation starts with 'How did you do that effect on that video?' or 'How do you send a text message without a picture?'. Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere. I am not saying that it is a good thing, but it makes people talk about it.

> Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere. AFAIK, every feature is explained on Snapchat's website. Also when new features are introduced, they've usually explained in the release notes on how to use them—like when lenses were first added.

That incentivizes people to explore the website/release notes to find these things, and be the first to get a new filter/lens/hologram on their story

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#146

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:29 AM UTC

justin wrote: post #80

goldenchrome wrote: post #62

I don't know what to say. I think OP did a good job of explaining what makes Snapchat so great, but their initial confusion and the confusion from the commenters within this thread boggles me. Recently I was in a room with a well-known VC who wouldn't believe a college student who said that they enjoy using Snapchat, as if they couldn't comprehend how anyone would like it. Virtually all the comments are about how Sna…

My initial confusion came from 1) not immediately understanding how the UI worked, 2) not being that interested in learning because few of my social network were one it. Once I invested a few minutes in understanding it out I loved it. I think the same would be true for many other people who "don't get it".

[deleted]

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#147

Post by ghrifter » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:30 AM UTC

ocean3 wrote: post #141

tomasien wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snapchat is the most important social network right now among my friends. I'm 27 (so not core Snapchat demo but close) and very few of my friends work in tech. It's massive. Instagram and Facebook are both close, but if something is happening there's a 5x better chance someone is going to Snap it than Insta it and 50x chance they'll Snap it than do anything with it on FB.

I assume in US? Here in India i doubt many know if there is something called Snapchat or even Instagram. Everyone's on WhatsApp.

Yes in US snapchat is huge. Especially among college students and highschoolers.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#148

Post by dreamdu5t » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:36 AM UTC

Snapchat is great if you have a group of friends who care about seeing random photos of your life throughout the day. What exactly am I supposed to "snap" while I'm sitting in an office all day staring at a computer? Take photos of my food? I don't understand how to participate when my life isn't filled with visual things to show people.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#149

Post by cookiecaper » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:39 AM UTC

I think I'm supposed to be too young to get that deeply irritated "stay off my lawn" feeling but Snapchat provides it in leaps and bounds. Lots of resentment here for Snapchat and the other useless "Hey, look ma, I'm worth a billion dollars!" unicorns lead by clueless collegiates that are always photographed wearing mom jeans and smirking into space.

I had just barely started to accept Twitter's presence in the world and now this.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#150

Post by lowpro » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 6:45 AM UTC

tomasien wrote: post #138

goldenchrome wrote: post #62

I don't know what to say. I think OP did a good job of explaining what makes Snapchat so great, but their initial confusion and the confusion from the commenters within this thread boggles me. Recently I was in a room with a well-known VC who wouldn't believe a college student who said that they enjoy using Snapchat, as if they couldn't comprehend how anyone would like it. Virtually all the comments are about how Sna…

Snapchat is the most important social network right now among my friends. I'm 27 (so not core Snapchat demo but close) and very few of my friends work in tech. It's massive. Instagram and Facebook are both close, but if something is happening there's a 5x better chance someone is going to Snap it than Insta it and 50x chance they'll Snap it than do anything with it on FB.

Being a 19 year old college student with many friends in high school, I can say snapchat is the most popular social network, followed by Instagram then Twitter, and lastly Facebook. If something is happening, people will snap and tweet about it, Instagram and Facebook are reserved for bigger events that are worth mentioning, snapchat and Twitter are for more day to day activities and therefore get used much more often.