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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 commenter

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 Snapchat confuses them and that there must be something seriously wrong with it. And yet the app is immensely popular. If you're one of those people, then Snapchat is not really made for you. You might be able to understand why Snapchat is a beloved app by reading a report about what the millennials are up to these days but I encourage anyone dealing with this confusion to make an effort to talk to people outside of your normal social circles once in a while. This kind of empathy with others will make you much more effective when you're creating for people who are not like you.

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justin 11y ago
My initial confusion came from 1) not immediately understanding how the UI worked, 2) not being that interested in learning because few of my social network were one it. Once I invested a few minutes in understanding it out I loved it. I think the same would be true for many other people who "don't get it".
- dorian-graph 11y ago
  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.
  - Alex3917 11y ago
    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 mostly experiencing it vicariously through other people.
    - arthurcolle 11y ago
      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
  - mblevin 11y ago
    Except most people's natural reaction when they don't understand other people's value systems is not empathy - it's criticism. It happens on a much lesser level with food, music, movies, etc - the reaction from a non-fan to a 15 year-old girl's declaration that she loves One Direction is not "ok I see why someone could like this music and why this tribal affiliation is both socially useful to a teenager" but rather Snapchat is the technology version of One Direction for a lot of adults. But also remember many adults couldn't understand why teenage girls went crazy for The Beatles in 1964 either.
  - mattlutze 11y ago
    For social networks in particular, the "I don't get it, here comes the criticism" reaction is a good thing. If a new social network / app is going to grow a devoted, core group of user evangelists, there needs to be a clear delineation between the in-group and out-group to help them adopt the network as part of their personal identity.
- deleted 11y ago
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Umn44 11y ago
> 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 fact that people are stupid and into fashion. The same thing applies for most things, take the videogame industry. Anyone who knows how a computer works and is not irrational knows DRM and locked down games are bad for games, the enlightened rational minority is outnumbered by the irrational majority. So corruption, appearances, crap products and the superficial rule.
- meat_fist 11y ago
  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.
  - Umn44 11y ago
    I can tell you the facts and you won't reason to the right conclusion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
NDizzle 11y ago
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.
- sveit 11y ago
  If you have a face-to-face conversation with a friend (assuming no eavesdropping devices are around) everything you say "self destructs". You'll feel freer to say certain things knowing that they will only persist in your friend's memory.
- Nadya 11y ago
  There's a certain beauty behind transient moments. It follows a separate line of thinking than that of people used to keeping digital archives of their lives. The Japanese cherry blossoms are a bittersweet moment during the spring. People go flower-watching (花見) to admire the beauty and it is a happy time. But it is also a sad time, because it is only for a fleeting moment before the time has gone and another year must pass before you can see them bloom. What makes them so special is that they do no last forever. If the cherry blossoms were in bloom year-round, they would not be any less beautiful - but I do not think they would see as much popularity. They would become commonplace and ignored. Not everything needs to live on forever - and some things would "suffer" if they did.
- 55555 11y ago
  Every real interaction you have in your life immediately disappears. Snapchat is like actually talking with somebody.
  - NDizzle 11y ago
    Can you tell who has read or seen your posts? I guess I mean, when I talk to someone I know they are there. I don't want to feel pressured to look at the feed every day on the chance of missing something. I feel like the people I talk to, I already talk to. Internet people are internet people - and I'd like them to approach my missives at their own pace. Not have an inspector-gadget like timer associated with the posts.
nottheissue 11y ago
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
- mgalka 11y ago
  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.
  - nottheissue 11y ago
    I never called anything stupid. Nor is it the case that I don't understand the comment. You actually pointed out no problem with my comment specifically, you merely accused me of "not understanding" and needing to "reread" the comment. How very unempathetic and condescending of you. I also never said that the comment was saying that "everyone needs to use snapchat". Maybe you should either address specific points made in someone else's comment or avoid being outright rude in an otherwise intellectual and civil discussion? Just a thought. EDIT: I also would expect discussions on a site like this to not devolve to false dichotomies of either total agreement or total disagreement with someone else's position (comment). If you read my comment carefully you will easily discern that my focus is on the lack of necessity for bringing an appeal to "empathy" into the discussion.
tomasien 11y ago
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.
- ocean3 11y ago
  I assume in US? Here in India i doubt many know if there is something called Snapchat or even Instagram. Everyone's on WhatsApp.
  - ghrifter 11y ago
    Yes in US snapchat is huge. Especially among college students and highschoolers.
  - cmadan 11y ago
    Instagram is pretty huge in India already. It has about 6M monthly active users and is installed on almost everyone in my age group's (25-35) phones. Snapchat on the other hand, most people won't know about it. However, I bet its drastically going to change in two years. Whatsapp is basically an SMS replacement - it lacks media rich features and as mobile internet speeds improve in India, people will gravitate towards apps such as Snapchat.
    - ocean3 11y ago
      I am in same age bracket. They barely know Instagram. It used to be facebook all the time now Whatsapp has taken over it. Why do you consider whatsapps lacking in media. You can upload photos, videos. If they allowed documents it would have been better.
      - cmadan 11y ago
        Maybe our social circles are different :). Snapchat has high resolution pictures & videos, filters, adding captions, adding emoji to pictures, drawing stuff on it. Whatsapp photos and videos functionality is just barely better than MMS.

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justin 11y ago

My initial confusion came from 1) not immediately understanding how the UI worked, 2) not being that interested in learning because few of my social network were one it. Once I invested a few minutes in understanding it out I loved it. I think the same would be true for many other people who "don't get it".

dorian-graph 11y ago
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.
- Alex3917 11y ago
  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 mostly experiencing it vicariously through other people.
  - arthurcolle 11y ago
    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
- mblevin 11y ago
  Except most people's natural reaction when they don't understand other people's value systems is not empathy - it's criticism. It happens on a much lesser level with food, music, movies, etc - the reaction from a non-fan to a 15 year-old girl's declaration that she loves One Direction is not "ok I see why someone could like this music and why this tribal affiliation is both socially useful to a teenager" but rather Snapchat is the technology version of One Direction for a lot of adults. But also remember many adults couldn't understand why teenage girls went crazy for The Beatles in 1964 either.
- mattlutze 11y ago
  For social networks in particular, the "I don't get it, here comes the criticism" reaction is a good thing. If a new social network / app is going to grow a devoted, core group of user evangelists, there needs to be a clear delineation between the in-group and out-group to help them adopt the network as part of their personal identity.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Umn44 11y ago

> 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 fact that people are stupid and into fashion. The same thing applies for most things, take the videogame industry. Anyone who knows how a computer works and is not irrational knows DRM and locked down games are bad for games, the enlightened rational minority is outnumbered by the irrational majority. So corruption, appearances, crap products and the superficial rule.

meat_fist 11y ago
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.
- Umn44 11y ago
  I can tell you the facts and you won't reason to the right conclusion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ

NDizzle 11y ago

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.

sveit 11y ago
If you have a face-to-face conversation with a friend (assuming no eavesdropping devices are around) everything you say "self destructs". You'll feel freer to say certain things knowing that they will only persist in your friend's memory.
Nadya 11y ago
There's a certain beauty behind transient moments. It follows a separate line of thinking than that of people used to keeping digital archives of their lives. The Japanese cherry blossoms are a bittersweet moment during the spring. People go flower-watching (花見) to admire the beauty and it is a happy time. But it is also a sad time, because it is only for a fleeting moment before the time has gone and another year must pass before you can see them bloom. What makes them so special is that they do no last forever. If the cherry blossoms were in bloom year-round, they would not be any less beautiful - but I do not think they would see as much popularity. They would become commonplace and ignored. Not everything needs to live on forever - and some things would "suffer" if they did.
55555 11y ago
Every real interaction you have in your life immediately disappears. Snapchat is like actually talking with somebody.
- NDizzle 11y ago
  Can you tell who has read or seen your posts? I guess I mean, when I talk to someone I know they are there. I don't want to feel pressured to look at the feed every day on the chance of missing something. I feel like the people I talk to, I already talk to. Internet people are internet people - and I'd like them to approach my missives at their own pace. Not have an inspector-gadget like timer associated with the posts.

nottheissue 11y ago

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

mgalka 11y ago
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.
- nottheissue 11y ago
  I never called anything stupid. Nor is it the case that I don't understand the comment. You actually pointed out no problem with my comment specifically, you merely accused me of "not understanding" and needing to "reread" the comment. How very unempathetic and condescending of you. I also never said that the comment was saying that "everyone needs to use snapchat". Maybe you should either address specific points made in someone else's comment or avoid being outright rude in an otherwise intellectual and civil discussion? Just a thought. EDIT: I also would expect discussions on a site like this to not devolve to false dichotomies of either total agreement or total disagreement with someone else's position (comment). If you read my comment carefully you will easily discern that my focus is on the lack of necessity for bringing an appeal to "empathy" into the discussion.

tomasien 11y ago

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.

ocean3 11y ago
I assume in US? Here in India i doubt many know if there is something called Snapchat or even Instagram. Everyone's on WhatsApp.
- ghrifter 11y ago
  Yes in US snapchat is huge. Especially among college students and highschoolers.
- cmadan 11y ago
  Instagram is pretty huge in India already. It has about 6M monthly active users and is installed on almost everyone in my age group's (25-35) phones. Snapchat on the other hand, most people won't know about it. However, I bet its drastically going to change in two years. Whatsapp is basically an SMS replacement - it lacks media rich features and as mobile internet speeds improve in India, people will gravitate towards apps such as Snapchat.
  - ocean3 11y ago
    I am in same age bracket. They barely know Instagram. It used to be facebook all the time now Whatsapp has taken over it. Why do you consider whatsapps lacking in media. You can upload photos, videos. If they allowed documents it would have been better.
    - cmadan 11y ago
      Maybe our social circles are different :). Snapchat has high resolution pictures & videos, filters, adding captions, adding emoji to pictures, drawing stuff on it. Whatsapp photos and videos functionality is just barely better than MMS.