People who are 20 are doing on Snapchat today what I did on Facebook when I was 20: multicasting. I either want to send a message to everyone or to a group. Sometimes in a personal message. I see almost no real difference in content. Snapchat might be a little racier in personal messages, but that happened on FB and Twitter as well.
The ephemeral nature was built into Facebook and Twitter as well, to some extent, as the services weren't searchable. You'd post something and after a few more posts it was essentially "gone from view".
Outside of marketers and people trying to "build an audience" I really see almost no difference at all in the way people use it. It's just a matter of how old you are and what service was popular at the time.
Don't believe me? Do this as an experiment: Create a new account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Follow only 30 real people. No more, no less. 30 people you know. No marketers or self promoters or any of that nonsense. Just follow 30 real people, maybe a celeb or two the way a 20 year old might. Look at the content. It's all the same stuff. Having fun here, doing this with person X, Y, and Z. Cute dog photo. Inspiring quote. Maybe a DM with some nudes. There is nothing to "get" other than to understand that as you become older the thing that's changing is you. The biggest difference between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is how old you and your friends were when you started using it, and what what point in the lifecycle of the service you were at.
> There is nothing to "get" other than to understand that as you become older the thing that's changing is you
For proof of this, look no further than when Facebook introduced the timeline, making it easier to view old wall posts.
People went crazy, claiming their private messages had been made public [0]. In truth, they just couldn't remember how unconcerned with privacy they used to be.
It's not about privacy directly, but about the expectation for their old posts to be "forgotten." This is why the so-called "right to be forgotten" is/was a big deal in Europe.
It was more than that. People were looking at old wall posts (which were always public) and they couldn't believe that they'd ever had those conversations in public. Hence jumping to the conclusion that their private messages had somehow been converted into public posts.
I think it's fascinating on two counts. Firstly that the accepted etiquette of how we use social media changed so quickly. And secondly that people's brains can simply reject something they did in the past, if it doesn't fit their current sense of self.
Those are thought-provoking points. I'm trying to remember how I originally used facebook back in high school, and before the News Feed and Like eras we definitely used facebook much differently. Still, I think people use Snapchat to share more inconsequential parts of their lives than we ever did on facebook, but maybe that anecdotal experience isn't true, or maybe the difference is so minute that it doesn't even matter.
You've definitely changed my view of these social media platforms. I'm not sure that I absolutely agree with you, but I'm not sure where I disagree, either. Great points, all around.
>"Still, I think people use Snapchat to share more inconsequential parts of their lives than we ever did on facebook"
Actually, I think this can be chalked up to the age of you and your friends. Snapchat feels very "middle school", when a status update could have been something like "I just saw a cute dog!!" -- a very low bar. Now as a 20-something a status is something I would use to say "Flying back home for a week!" -- more major events.
I just wanted to login and say that you are reading my mind. I have been saying this for years but everyone within the industry looks at me as if I am a retarded monkey!
People who are 20 are doing on Snapchat today what I did on Facebook when I was 20: multicasting. I either want to send a message to everyone or to a group. Sometimes in a personal message. I see almost no real difference in content. Snapchat might be a little racier in personal messages, but that happened on FB and Twitter as well.
The ephemeral nature was built into Facebook and Twitter as well, to some extent, as the services weren't searchable. You'd post something and after a few more posts it was essentially "gone from view".
Outside of marketers and people trying to "build an audience" I really see almost no difference at all in the way people use it. It's just a matter of how old you are and what service was popular at the time.
Don't believe me? Do this as an experiment: Create a new account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Follow only 30 real people. No more, no less. 30 people you know. No marketers or self promoters or any of that nonsense. Just follow 30 real people, maybe a celeb or two the way a 20 year old might. Look at the content. It's all the same stuff. Having fun here, doing this with person X, Y, and Z. Cute dog photo. Inspiring quote. Maybe a DM with some nudes. There is nothing to "get" other than to understand that as you become older the thing that's changing is you. The biggest difference between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is how old you and your friends were when you started using it, and what what point in the lifecycle of the service you were at.