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Introducing the new Snapchat

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Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#181

Post by jacobolus »

tim333 wrote: post #135
iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

People have smiled for the camera since we've had cameras. It's not really a new social media phenomena.

This is not true. When cameras are first introduced to most societies, people don't smile for them. Often they even very intentionally stop smiling and adopt a serious/formal expression. Always smiling for the camera is a learned cultural behavior reinforced through pervasive social pressure, which took many decades to form and which was helped along by the heavy use of photography for advertising/propaganda where showing smiles increased sales, not a natural or predestined result.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#182

Post by romwell »

brandonmenc wrote: post #159
antod wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in all the really old photos I've seen. Lots of stern serious looks there. Smiles came later.

Hard to smile when you had to sit motionless for an hour while the image burned into the film back then.

That stopped being an issue very quickly.

Also, in the beginning it was not unusual that the only portrait of a person was post-mortem - to preserve the memory (as in 100 years of solitude). Difficult to smile in that case.

However, photographs were serious business for quite a while. You don't see people smiling on official portraits for the same reason. Imagine that portrait of Napoleon on a horse, but with a smile - doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Same for early photographs; they were expected to be solemn.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#183

Post by vernie »

Simon_says wrote: post #162
anant90 wrote: post #35

Teenagers, and for that matter, everyone yearns for smaller private spaces where they can share whatever they want with their closest friends — without any reservations of judgement from their parents, grandmas or uncles. I used to love Instagram, until Facebook decided to make it Facebook v2 by making my entire "friend" list follow me there as well. That means that until I invest a lot of time hiding my story from e…

The best advice is to not put anything into electronic form that you wouldn't want your everyone you know (along with prosecuting attorneys) to read about in detail in the newspaper. Facebook may promise something is private, but all it takes is the smallest software bug and their promises are ashes.

Fortunately nobody reads the newspaper anymore.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#184

Post by kbuchanan »

iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

It's human nature to crave feedback. Heck, I avoid social media platforms, but that doesn't mean I don't compulsively check to see what HN readers think of my comments. But it's abnormal to orient your life around likes, and antithetical to a path of happiness. So, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#186

Post by iambateman »

kbuchanan wrote: post #184
iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

It's human nature to crave feedback. Heck, I avoid social media platforms, but that doesn't mean I don't compulsively check to see what HN readers think of my comments. But it's abnormal to orient your life around likes, and antithetical to a path of happiness. So, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly.

Honestly, I got a good number of upvotes for OP and came here to see how many upvotes there were. I guess Fake Internet Points are powerful in all forms. ;)

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#187

Post by rcheu »

distantsounds wrote: post #6

Android's Camera API has existed for _literally years_ to take high-quality photos and these guys are still just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder and calling it a day. It's been like this forever and Snap has refused to fix this. I have yet to come across any other app on Android that utilizes the camera this way. The photos are complete garbage. And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where…

The Android Camera API is notoriously bad, and the Camera1/Camera2 switch isn't helping either. I would guess the main reason they do the screenshot approach is that it's actually faster than asking Android to take a photo and produces a photo that exactly matches what the user expected.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#188

Post by cam_l »

iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

this could also be understood as the inherent shortcomings of photography as a medium to capture your recollection of the experience of an event.

or in another way, photography exposes the difficulty of translating your recollection to a third party. when I show you a grainy photo of some bright lights and blurred, sweaty people, I remember a great concert with friends.. but you just see the grainy photo.

though I agree with what you are saying, I think this is just the mass adoption of the imagification (both actual and meta) of life that began with portraiture back in the middle ages. why rail against snapchat when we already live in a world of fake family portraits?

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#189

Post by billfeng »

iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be liked by others or wanting affirmation, or even performing for your friends. We are social creatures and we live in groups and communities so of course we want to be liked by others. The problem is where it leads you. There are also loads of artists and creatives who didn't realize how amazing their works are until one day they decided to post it onto the internet and many strangers were amazed by what they made. Their fan base then goes on to encourage and affirm what the artists do and because of that they were able to reach new heights and break limits they never would have been able to on their own.

I think the real question is, who are you without this medium? Are you still the same person? The artist who was encouraged by the responses of strangers can continue to do his or her work without the medium. The affirmation has helped them but it's not something they rely on.

In contrast if you find yourself craving it so much that without it you are anxious and suffering, then you have a problem. If the concert kids you mentioned were enjoying the concerts anyways, dancing and cheering all the way through on snapchat or not, then it wouldn't be worrying at all.

This is really the same for anything that's potentially addictive. Can you live without it? Do you goto lengths that are otherwise uncomfortable to you to acquire it?

Yes, snapchat has made it easier for us to fake ourselves, but only in the same way the internet has made it easier for us to look at pornography, and the industrial revolution has made it easier for us to have access to alcohol and cigarettes. I think in time this will pass too, just like all the other harmful things we could indulge in, as people have self-control and are smart enough to eventually realize that being our authentic selves bring about the most happiness.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#190

Post by _kyran »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #168
sethhochberg wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then, promptly find that one nightclub in your city that forbids photos and video... you hopefully have one, and its probably a better time. :)

I've lived in many major cities around the world (and have done enough partying to confidently say) I haven't seen one nightclub that forbids taking photos. That would be stupid. I've seen a couple of bars where they ban it, but not in nightclubs, especially high end ones. It's too hectic to "ban" something there, and the more exclusive the place is, the more likely the visitors want to instagram their visits, the be…

Got to Berlin. Just about every club bans all forms of photography and many put a sticker on your phone's cameras when entering.
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