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For the longest time, I found Snapchat to be the silliest thing ever. I didn't understand how Evan could have possibly turned down Facebook's $3B… But then, I
by SeoxyS 10y ago
For the longest time, I found Snapchat to be the silliest thing ever. I didn't understand how Evan could have possibly turned down Facebook's $3B…
But then, I started _really_ using it, and something clicked. Snapchat enables serendipity in the digital world. Unlike traditional social networks, where people curate their image, limit the amount they post, and where a smart feed decides what you see, on Snapchat people post unfiltered real-time snapshots of their lives, and when you go through the story feed, you see everyone's content. Snapchat makes it dead easy to reply to stories by just swiping, and unlike a public comment on other networks, it goes straight into their chat inbox. That makes it really easy to start conversations about things actually going on in people's lives. It's the ultimate ice-breaker.
Thanks to that ability to super easily and non-awkwardly talk to people, I've become friends with people who would otherwise be strangers or merely acquaintances. I've had relationships and flings with girls that I only talked to because it was easy on Snapchat. (No sexting involved.) That effect is what makes Snapchat truly special and different than other networks.
- chillacy 10y agoThat and Snapchat is just _fun_, in a way that Facebook with its serious Pharmaceutical blue logo isn't, despite Facebook's sleekness and clean UI. Everything from the filters, to the little badges you get for streaks and best friends, to the moving selfie picture in the little ghost, adds to the effect. Maybe Snap will stick around and maybe it won't but I've already found myself reaching for snap to send an image of a restaurant instead of typing it, or sending a reaction selfie instead of an emoji because its so much easier than typing.
- pcmaffey 10y agoIs this _emphasis_ a meme I'm not aware of, or are you just copying the parent's particular usage?
- sbierwagen 10y agoIt's common convention that's a couple decades old at this point, also included in markdown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#Example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#Example RFC 7, from May 1969, used it: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7.txt https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7.txt
- CydeWeys 10y agoCorrection on that RFC: The 1969 version was handwritten, and likely did not use underscores for emphasis (who does that in handwriting?). It was typed up electronically in what looks to be 2002, and plenty of examples of the underscore notation exist prior to then.
- Houshalter 10y agoNot in handwriting but on typewriters, which didn't have italics. Underlining text was used for emphasis on typewritten documents. Which is probably the origin of this convention. You can't underline in plain ASCII either, so people started putting underline characters _around_ words instead.
- 55555 10y agoI do this sometimes. It's like a form of underlining when underlining isn't supported. Also, I think people get the habit from using Markdown, which uses _this_ for emphasis.
- chillacy 10y agoOops, I've been writing too much Markdown!
- wcummings 10y agoPeople use it all the time on IRC.
- BrandonY 10y agoWell great, I feel super old now.
- NamTaf 10y agoIt's old emphasis from at least the IRC heyday era (where I picked it up), likley earlier as some of the sibling comments allude to. Interesting, HN takes asterisk characters around text and parses it to italics like this, but I tended to know that as meaning bold font emphasis, with /this/ as italics. Regardless, it's certainly an old habit
- jacobolus 10y agoIt’s a computer-era simulation of the 100 (?) year-old convention of using underline to represent emphasis in typewritten documents. Or maybe the same convention might have even been used before typewriters, to mark up manuscripts? (A manuscript needs clear instructions to the typesetter, because someone’s handwriting might not make the distinction between Roman and Italic scripts immediately obvious.)
- Apocryphon 10y agoI think if Instagram Stories really does prove to be the death knell of Snapchat, it won't be because of Snapchat being inherently flawed, but because of the fickle tastes of the public swinging the pendulum of spontaneity vs. curation back towards the latter part of the spectrum.
- adiabatty 10y agoI'd still have to sign up for a Facebook-controlled service. Pass. It might slow migration from Instagram to Snapchat, though.
- kilroy123 10y agoThey've added it to WhatsApp as well. Which has like 1 billion users around the world. Also now facebook controlled.
- k-mcgrady 10y agoI don't think that's to do with taste. More convenience. People already have large followings on Instagram and discovery is much easier. You're already posting there and now you can do stories without having to go to another app and build another following.
- Apocryphon 10y agoSure, but that convenience still depends on what they want. Something they can share and then throw away within 24 hours, or something that they want to keep so that future followers can look at.
- cft 10y agoSomeone I know quit FB at the age of 22, when his grandma tagged a girl that he liked and commented "you'd make such a great couple" or some such. Age separation is a big deal.
- danappelxx 10y agoHoly cringe... this is exactly the reason I tend to avoid Facebook in favor of the Instagram and such.
- kilroy123 10y agoOh yeah. With your grandparents, mom, friends, etc. watching. You barely post anything. I think the biggest place where facebook fails, is making it easier to segment people and create groups. Where you can easily setup a group, of say friends, and you can more openly post. Without telling grandma about how you dropped LCD at the concert two days ago and had a wild time. You _can_ do this now, but it's clunky and painful.
- tomjakubowski 10y agoProbably close to 80% of my Facebook activities these days take place in group messages for exactly this reason. It's easy to add and remove people to/from a group message while still retaining context, so it works well for planning ad-hoc outings where the group of people involved is quite fluid in its membership.
- nicolashahn 10y agoOh no, was your phone okay? ^badjoke
- geoffmcc 10y agoOne thing I liked about my 5 minutes on google plus was how easy it was to filter groups out of my post. Yea FB has filters now, but I think google did it better.
- jedbrown 10y agoIt doesn't bother you to have the perception of privacy without actual privacy? Like being alone, except for the hidden cameras.
- joering2 10y ago... but can it make money? (pointing at twitter)
- brilliantcode 10y agoLocal Man Discovers Hindsight Bias, Shocked By Accuracy