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Why I love Snapchat

justinkan.com

131–140 of 176 posts

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#131
post #33
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see the number of, and names of, the people who view/screenshot your Story. Other replies to your comment are right about individual Snaps, but I think the article is mostly talking about the Story feature.

"There’s no public view count, follower count, likes count, or any other social dick-measuring contest. You can just put whatever you’re doing on Snapchat; if people don’t like it, who gives a fuck, you’ll never know." Hmm...I guess you guys are talking about somewhat different things - a public viewer count that you can compare to other people vs a private one that only you can see. It still feels a bit contradictor…

Maybe it's the difference between admiring your dick in the mirror and hanging it out the window.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#132
post #105
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every real interaction you have in your life immediately disappears. Snapchat is like actually talking with somebody.

But why should interaction disappear if it doesn't have to? Snapchat is no more like talking with someone than Facebook Messenger is, with the exception that you get to keep your interaction with Facebook Messenger. While I "get" your point, I think it's a stretch in terms of what Snapchat offers that I can't get elsewhere with a better experience. But then, I'm well over 20 and from the comments on this post, defini…

No, Facebook Messenger is like talking to someone with a tape recorder sitting between you.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#133
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This kind of empathy with others will make you much more effective when you're creating for people who are not like you. Empathy has nothing to do with it, most people who use computers are stupid or if they are smart have irrational traits. Our ancient primate brain is easily fooled. Apple's ipod was not technically superior to competing MP3 players. Steve jobs was not a genius, he was just taking advantage of the…

This comment is very unempathetic. You're taking a very strong "if you don't agree with me you are stupid" approach, which is pretty much the exact opposite of empathy. Also, most of the things that you've said are entirely subjective. You're stating your own opinions as fact, which most of us (me) would say is something a stupid, unempathetic person would do.

I can tell you the facts and you won't reason to the right conclusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#134
"There’s no public view count, follower count, likes count, or any other social dick-measuring contest. " He adds his account so people can follow him :/

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#136
post #90

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…

At a base level, I'm not sure why you'd do something to have it disappear. Why would I write anything or record a short video that would self destruct?! It seems like it's for meaningless stuff. If you follow that logic far enough that means the whole thing is meaningless.

It's all about lowering the stakes in social interaction. It's one of the reasons why Twitter became so popular yet people continue to be baffled by it. Facebook has utterly failed on this front IMO.

Most people realize that whatever they want to say to their friends is almost always unimportant and ultimately meaningless. This is how real life conversations work 99% of the time. When you post something to Facebook you're saying that whatever you have to say is important enough to put up on everybody's news feed and stay around forever. When you use Snapchat you're saying that whatever you have to say is worth a few seconds of your friends' time and then disappears forever.

It also plays against the slow realization by Millennials as they've grown up that everything they do on the Internet is permanent and they need to be careful about it. Snapchat let's you do whatever stupid shit you want as long as you trust the recipients to not save it and share it.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#137

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…

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 of empathy. The other part is actually exercising this emotion in your actions, choices, and interactions with other people.

I don't think not understanding snapchat (and not wanting to understand snapchat) is a display of a lack of empathy. There are many things that each of us choose not to spend time learning about. That is just a basic facet of life.

And, I find it extremely disingenuous to start blaming people of being "bad human beings" because they do not care to entertain themselves with a currently popular social application. Like really? Is this what we have lowered our discussion standards too?

This jump to appealing to some sort of moral high-ground to establish your point is logically fallacious at best. Especially when morality/ethics plays zero part in people's personal views/choices in regards to a topic e.g. this topic.

>make an effort to talk to people outside of your normal social circles once in a while.

You do realize that the majority of Snapchat's users are most likely using it to participate in THEIR social circles, right? To each their own. It's perfectly fine to NOT be in some social circles.

I am seriously amused that the top comment is an appeal to ethical standards in regards to people's personal opinions about an app. Very amused! :D

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#138

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.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#139

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…

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.

Re: Why I love Snapchat

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's concerning that those who don't get it then act confused about why anyone else would like it. It seems like out of 2 possible responses, the ideal should be b) a) I don't understand it or see the appeal, then why do other people like it? b) I don't like it or see the appeal, but others do. Cool.

I completely understand the appeal of snapchat; it's basically LSD in social network form... The intimacy of shared human experience, the infinite nowness, the mindfuck UI, the altered values, the sense of sacred space, etc. But much like acid, I feel like I wouldn't be able to engage with it everyday without weird things happening to my brain. I totally support people who use it, just personally I'm content with mos…

Completely agree; interesting remark. I was recently traveling with someone that spent probably a good 25% of her time on Snapchat. It was kinda (read: thoroughly) offputting
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