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How Snapchat took over Yale

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Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#11

Post by tammer »

digitalengineer wrote: post #7

Since snaps disappear seconds after they are opened, users feel comfortable sending spontaneous and personal messages that they would not want ingrained into digital histories. I donno but taking a screenshot and posting it on FB isn't very difficult. Do people really believe the images 'disappear'?

The key here is intention. While of course it's quite possible for images to be reproduced in one way or another, the fact that they must be reproduced, and not simply 'shared' or 're-*ed,' changes the user's relation to the app.

I think this gets to the tone of the article, as communicating this way implies a level of trust and/or intimacy usually reserved for analog methods.

Snapchat is brilliant in this regard. I think we're going to see a lot more communication platforms built on limitations rather than sprawling features.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#12

Post by wmblaettler »

jusben1369 wrote: post #5

My 12 year old and her group of friends are hooked on Snapchat. No idea it had reached the University/College level. My understanding is the kids love it because several parents insist that their children never delete their texts until the parent has reviewed all of them each night. People will share more when they know that content goes away. Makes a lot of sense but would have never thought of it that way prior.

I am not one that checks my daughter's txts every night, but I do educate her that her actions can have farther reaching consequences than a young person might think at the time. Doesn't the false sense of privacy that this app creates give you concern that your daughter and her group of friends might overshare and create problems for themselves or others? The content does not go away, there is no way to prevent that. There have already been several workarounds (hacks) to persist the images being sent and I could think of a few more low tech solutions (second camera to take a photo of the snapchat screen is one that comes to mind).

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#13

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

I hope I'm not coming off as a conspiracy nut, but I can't see the US Government being too keen on something like this that's truly untraceable.

IANAL, but it seems to me that every service or software that is used for personal communication is forced by the Feds to allow accessibility for wiretapping circumstances.

Of course, I'm completely against it and I believe the situation is completely untenable for them to persist, but I don't think a social picture app will be the ones to stand tall on user privacy.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#14

Post by ed209 »

landr0id wrote: post #9
digitalengineer wrote: post #7

Since snaps disappear seconds after they are opened, users feel comfortable sending spontaneous and personal messages that they would not want ingrained into digital histories. I donno but taking a screenshot and posting it on FB isn't very difficult. Do people really believe the images 'disappear'?

Seeing that someone took a screenshot will usually deter you from sending more embarrassing photos in the future.

If you're expecting something potentially embarrassing, then it's not so hard to be at the ready with a camera to take a photo of the screen.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#15

Post by digitalengineer »

joshmlewis wrote: post #10
digitalengineer wrote: post #7

Since snaps disappear seconds after they are opened, users feel comfortable sending spontaneous and personal messages that they would not want ingrained into digital histories. I donno but taking a screenshot and posting it on FB isn't very difficult. Do people really believe the images 'disappear'?

Yeah they do. It's more of the fact that it alerts the other person when someone does that. If for instance I knew person a's trust in me would be decreased a lot if they knew I tried to save something they didn't want to be saved, then that gives me my own moral I guess gauge as to playing by the rules. If I didn't know the person then obviously the limiting factor my internal gauge might put in is decreased. If a f…

This App promotes itself with 'temporary photo's'. But they're anything but. Combine teens with 'private' photo's that really are not temporary and basically it's an accident waiting to happen. I think we've all heard our share of jealous ex(boy)friend stories dumping loads of pics when the relation crashed. If people feel save because the images are 'temporary' odd are they'll find out things were not so private.

Teens doing teen-things is fine. But the sense of security they think they're getting is false.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#16

Post by 001sky »

tammer wrote: post #11
digitalengineer wrote: post #7

Since snaps disappear seconds after they are opened, users feel comfortable sending spontaneous and personal messages that they would not want ingrained into digital histories. I donno but taking a screenshot and posting it on FB isn't very difficult. Do people really believe the images 'disappear'?

The key here is intention. While of course it's quite possible for images to be reproduced in one way or another, the fact that they must be reproduced, and not simply 'shared' or 're-*ed,' changes the user's relation to the app. I think this gets to the tone of the article, as communicating this way implies a level of trust and/or intimacy usually reserved for analog methods. Snapchat is brilliant in this regard. I…

I think we're going to see a lot more communication platforms built on limitations

-- This would be an interesting brainstorm.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#17

Post by SeanDav »

ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #13

I hope I'm not coming off as a conspiracy nut, but I can't see the US Government being too keen on something like this that's truly untraceable. IANAL, but it seems to me that every service or software that is used for personal communication is forced by the Feds to allow accessibility for wiretapping circumstances. Of course, I'm completely against it and I believe the situation is completely untenable for them to p…

This hardly untraceable. Everything going through the networks is recordable and the Government has access to it all.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#19

Post by tsunamifury »

001sky wrote: post #16
tammer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key here is intention. While of course it's quite possible for images to be reproduced in one way or another, the fact that they must be reproduced, and not simply 'shared' or 're-*ed,' changes the user's relation to the app. I think this gets to the tone of the article, as communicating this way implies a level of trust and/or intimacy usually reserved for analog methods. Snapchat is brilliant in this regard. I…

I think we're going to see a lot more communication platforms built on limitations -- This would be an interesting brainstorm.

Almost every single piece of popular social software is built on limitations. In fact, their models are almost all exclusively made up of boundaries that box in a certain measurable behavior.

AOL -> Myspace -> Facebook -> Twitter -> Pinterest -> Vine or whatever comes next has always been a dialog of editorializing and limiting communication into models that are smaller and easier for digital communication.

The problem with the internet was different that any other communication technology of the last thousand years. Unlike books, phones or even TV, it provided too much access and too vast an audience with boundless communication (i.e. AOL Mass chatrooms) and people felt lost and faceless in the masses. Social media has been an exercise in limitation to solve that problem since its inception.

Re: How Snapchat took over Yale

#20

Post by the_watcher »

jusben1369 wrote: post #5

My 12 year old and her group of friends are hooked on Snapchat. No idea it had reached the University/College level. My understanding is the kids love it because several parents insist that their children never delete their texts until the parent has reviewed all of them each night. People will share more when they know that content goes away. Makes a lot of sense but would have never thought of it that way prior.

It started at the college level. For months it was literally only on Stanford's campus (where the founders are students).
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