Got Snapchat recently and want your opinion on it.
Some things I like: public snaps that can keep you up to date and more aware of the world around you.
Things I don’t like: 24/7 friend locations, from the fact that anyone knows where you are and that Snapchat will sell your location data to advertisers.
Would also like to know more about etiquette on the app.
I never understood the appeal. I watched it explode in popularity among the people around me, my family and friends. And the whole time I was like, “so it’s a messaging app that automatically deletes your conversations?”
But TBF I’ve never understood the appeal of any social media.
I dont know anyone who uses it as a routine way to text. A couple commenters said it’s popular for some people that way, though, so maybe it is. I guess it allows for more natural conversation if you are talking like you aren’t making a permanent record.
If you don’t use it, it doesn’t seem that useful, but it actually offers a pretty good utility. There are a lot of situations where you want to show something to someone, but you don’t want/need to permanently have a picture of it in your phone. Just looking at a text conversation with a friend who doesn’t have it, I see pictures we’ve sent back and forth with screenshots of restaurant reservation times and movie show times that have already passed. There’s things they’ve seen at the store that they wanted to know if they should buy for me. That kind of stuff doesn’t need to be permanently stored on my phone, but it is. Yeah, both of us could go in and delete those pictures, but realistically, we won’t.
It’s all extra true for video.
It also didn’t delete conversations. It kept everything on its servers and only removed visibility for users.
I think the main appeal is that it would auto-delete the nudes you send to someone you don’t quite trust. I’m too sober to contemplate why you’d send nudes to someone you don’t quite trust, but I know it’s a thing.
Of course, once it’s on someone else’s device, Snapchat can’t really guarantee they haven’t kept a copy. From what I’ve read about the implementation, it doesn’t even try very hard. The fact that you can’t trust the client is basic network security.