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My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

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Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#11
post #3

Eyes opening. How I felt old in my 20s just by reading an article :(

Snapchat is the first (and likely not the last) mobile app that I (as someone in my late 20's) just "don't get". There have been plenty of apps that I've tried and aren't for me so I've uninstalled them, but I always seem to understand their purpose and what makes them unique and desirable to use for someone who isn't me. Snapchat on the other hand...is a mystery.

I'm in my mid-20's now, and I got it at first, though I didn't use it. Thr point a few years ago was it was a "secure" and "private" place to share with your friends, thanks to the ephemeral nature.

But over the last 18 months they've pushed towards a more broad social graph and more public nature and I just don't understand it. It's Instagram with some time-limit's.

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#12
My close friend in her mid-20s is teaching a journalism class to high school students, using SnapChat. I've been fascinated by the student's perspective. They all use Snapchat.

One of the most interesting responses I heard what that Snapchat was what they used to connect with people they didnt know too well, but wanted to stay in touch with. For example, if they meet someone, but dont know them too well, they would exchange Snapchat information. It is literally like Facebook was for the last generation.

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#14

I consider myself an early-adopter. I always try to at least test out new technology, especially if it's what "the kids" are using. But with Snapchat I had a strong reaction of "this is dumb, screw this, I'm too old for this". Plus, no one I knew used it. I guess that makes me old now.

I didn't get it until literally this past Sunday. I've always had it installed on my phone, and have maybe ~10 friends on it, but I never actually sent anything. I would occasionally receive a snapchat from my friend, I would chuckle, and that was the end of it.

This Sunday my wife took my phone and just took a silly picture of ourselves during the Super Bowl and sent it to everyone on my list. Within minutes, I was getting a response from pretty much everyone, some people I haven't even talked to in months, and it was fun and made us laugh! I had the dumbest epiphany of my life. It's really just a fast, dumb way to communicate. That's it. Maybe I'll actually use it more now

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#15

I never really understood how snapchat works. I don't know anyone on it, how do I add people? The only snaps I got were from the Snapchat Team itself.

- Add people from your contacts: swipe down from the main screen -> add friends

- Add people by username: celebrities often post their username on other social networks, you can find aggregate lists

- Add people by "snapcode": hold the camera over someone else's phone while they display their snapcode, your snapcode is the yellow QR code thing you see when you swipe down from the main screen

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#17

My close friend in her mid-20s is teaching a journalism class to high school students, using SnapChat. I've been fascinated by the student's perspective. They all use Snapchat. One of the most interesting responses I heard what that Snapchat was what they used to connect with people they didnt know too well, but wanted to stay in touch with. For example, if they meet someone, but dont know them too well, they would e…

Because facebook is full of companies and old people.

Snapchat is not about snapchat, it is about having a space to themselves.

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#18
There's product placement. He namedrops "Treller" and "VSCO". The article isn't "How to upgrade your style", it "How to become a Snapchat user." Even his conclusion is "I'll try more", just like you tell yur teacher when you've failed and you know you'll fail again. I don't doubt the person is authentic, but I wonder how much he has worked with BuzzFeed to tune the article.

Still, 1. Snapchat's design is remarkable for its hidden features that you discover by social-networking, and 2. it's a much more interesting, funny, interactive press release presenting the features of a product than any other start-up I've seen. Next product video I make, I'll make it this way.

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#19

It's a video game for her. She doesn't look at the photos in the morning, she just responds to keep the chain going. It's like grinding. She has a score, tries to improve it, get trophies, new equipment (I mean filters), etc.

Yet Another Skinner Box.

EDIT: At least SpaceX and Tesla won the Crunchies instead of junk like Snapchat.

Re: My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens”

#20
post #14

I consider myself an early-adopter. I always try to at least test out new technology, especially if it's what "the kids" are using. But with Snapchat I had a strong reaction of "this is dumb, screw this, I'm too old for this". Plus, no one I knew used it. I guess that makes me old now.

I didn't get it until literally this past Sunday. I've always had it installed on my phone, and have maybe ~10 friends on it, but I never actually sent anything. I would occasionally receive a snapchat from my friend, I would chuckle, and that was the end of it. This Sunday my wife took my phone and just took a silly picture of ourselves during the Super Bowl and sent it to everyone on my list. Within minutes, I was…

This is why I like it, and I'm in my 30s.

It reminds me of Facebook back in the day, when it wasn't so serious. When it wasn't full of politics and Buzzfeed and not-so-humblebrags.

You don't have to worry (as much) about a silly photo coming back to haunt you in 10 years on Snapchat. It's much less formal feeling. The faces are my favorite; it's just a lot of fun to use.

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