4 ms·

I don't know anyone over 18 who uses Snapchat besides celebrities.

gumby 8y ago
a lot of college students.
pgm8705 8y ago
Opposite for me. I don't know many people over 18 who don't use Snapchat. Even parents of most my peers(late 20s - mid 30s) use it. It has largely replaced iMessage or SMS for exchanging dumb pictures of day-to-day things (e.g. Your dog doing something silly/cute)
- YourMatt 8y ago
  I'm pushing 40. It's split in my circle. Less than half use it. Of the other half, it's mostly women. I personally tried it and rejected it after getting a feel for how it works.
pmulv 8y ago
As some anecdata, my mid-twenties group of friends and I use snapchat frequently. My brother is a freshman in college and he uses it with his friends as well. For whatever reason, starting "streaks" has become popular with my friends, where the same friends will snap me everyday and expect a snap in reply so that our counter of consecutive days increases over time. I hate to admit it, but I enjoy this gamification of the service, and it has resulted in me checking snapchat everyday for more than 650 consecutive days. I know it's been that long because that is my longest snap streak, but the truth is that I am rarely the one that breaks the streak so it has probably been much longer than that. There is also definitely a feeling of disappointment and relief when a large streak is broken.
- sutterbomb 8y ago
  650 consecutive days?! Lock your phone in a safe for a weekend and take a walk in the woods, I beg you.
jarboot 8y ago
Just wanted to say as a 20-25 year old, snapchat is still extremely popular among people I know. The perception is snapchat for friend's daily lives, instagram for following celebs/creators and permanent posts, facebook for events and extended family, and messenger for email/wechat/whatsapp functionality. It's the primary way I keep in contact with acquaintances, and many other people I know are the same. It's a more intimate version of social media that is typically only used by smartphone-savvy people and it's perfect for this. I see nothing besides my friend's content and a few ads between viewing their stories, while instagram inserts ads and algorithmically sorts content in the feed. Once I go through every one of my friend's stories, there's nothing to keep me on the app and endlessly scrolling like instagram. To me and others, insta is intentionally addictive Posting permanent posts there about your life can sometimes come across as vain, while snapchat is more of a window to view your friend's world through and gives very open statistics like who has seen a story, if someone has opened a snap, etc. I have my problems with snapchat, like poor android support, slow startup time, bloat, and sponsored stories on the right side are tabloid trash. But it's still very heavily used in America. Most friends outside of the US say that it declined in use in their European or african countries like a fad, but it's become a standard in the US. Those of you saying it's useless besides teenagers using it to sext or not knowing anyone above 18 that uses snapchat look out of touch or like you're pushing an agenda. It might be declining but it is still a large force and very used!
- ryandrake 8y ago
  > The perception is snapchat for friend's daily lives, instagram for following celebs/creators and permanent posts, facebook for events and extended family, and messenger for email/wechat/whatsapp functionality. That sounds exhausting! Stereotypical “old person” here. I can’t imagine having my social life so completely moderated by and tied to web services. It sounds like a full time job just to manage it all.
- rconti 8y ago
  I've never used Snapchat, but I like this description where there's an "end" to the content, rather than infinite scrolling. You can catch up, and be done. To reply to another commenter here, I, too, am "old" and generally find any video content exhausting. I like text and pictures; the idea of an experience to which I am captive feels suffocating; I feel like I have no choice. Oh, it has sound, great, now I have to put my headphones on. Or I have to watch this youtube video eventually get to the point, or a gif of indeterminate length. I feel the same way about Instagram stories and video, BUT I think generally these platforms (I'm sure Snap included) at least have a scrubber so you know when it will be over.

a lot of college students.

Opposite for me. I don't know many people over 18 who don't use Snapchat. Even parents of most my peers(late 20s - mid 30s) use it. It has largely replaced iMessage or SMS for exchanging dumb pictures of day-to-day things (e.g. Your dog doing something silly/cute)

YourMatt 8y ago
I'm pushing 40. It's split in my circle. Less than half use it. Of the other half, it's mostly women. I personally tried it and rejected it after getting a feel for how it works.

pmulv 8y ago

As some anecdata, my mid-twenties group of friends and I use snapchat frequently. My brother is a freshman in college and he uses it with his friends as well. For whatever reason, starting "streaks" has become popular with my friends, where the same friends will snap me everyday and expect a snap in reply so that our counter of consecutive days increases over time. I hate to admit it, but I enjoy this gamification of the service, and it has resulted in me checking snapchat everyday for more than 650 consecutive days. I know it's been that long because that is my longest snap streak, but the truth is that I am rarely the one that breaks the streak so it has probably been much longer than that. There is also definitely a feeling of disappointment and relief when a large streak is broken.

sutterbomb 8y ago
650 consecutive days?! Lock your phone in a safe for a weekend and take a walk in the woods, I beg you.

jarboot 8y ago

Just wanted to say as a 20-25 year old, snapchat is still extremely popular among people I know. The perception is snapchat for friend's daily lives, instagram for following celebs/creators and permanent posts, facebook for events and extended family, and messenger for email/wechat/whatsapp functionality. It's the primary way I keep in contact with acquaintances, and many other people I know are the same. It's a more intimate version of social media that is typically only used by smartphone-savvy people and it's perfect for this. I see nothing besides my friend's content and a few ads between viewing their stories, while instagram inserts ads and algorithmically sorts content in the feed. Once I go through every one of my friend's stories, there's nothing to keep me on the app and endlessly scrolling like instagram. To me and others, insta is intentionally addictive Posting permanent posts there about your life can sometimes come across as vain, while snapchat is more of a window to view your friend's world through and gives very open statistics like who has seen a story, if someone has opened a snap, etc. I have my problems with snapchat, like poor android support, slow startup time, bloat, and sponsored stories on the right side are tabloid trash. But it's still very heavily used in America. Most friends outside of the US say that it declined in use in their European or african countries like a fad, but it's become a standard in the US. Those of you saying it's useless besides teenagers using it to sext or not knowing anyone above 18 that uses snapchat look out of touch or like you're pushing an agenda. It might be declining but it is still a large force and very used!

ryandrake 8y ago
> The perception is snapchat for friend's daily lives, instagram for following celebs/creators and permanent posts, facebook for events and extended family, and messenger for email/wechat/whatsapp functionality. That sounds exhausting! Stereotypical “old person” here. I can’t imagine having my social life so completely moderated by and tied to web services. It sounds like a full time job just to manage it all.
rconti 8y ago
I've never used Snapchat, but I like this description where there's an "end" to the content, rather than infinite scrolling. You can catch up, and be done. To reply to another commenter here, I, too, am "old" and generally find any video content exhausting. I like text and pictures; the idea of an experience to which I am captive feels suffocating; I feel like I have no choice. Oh, it has sound, great, now I have to put my headphones on. Or I have to watch this youtube video eventually get to the point, or a gif of indeterminate length. I feel the same way about Instagram stories and video, BUT I think generally these platforms (I'm sure Snap included) at least have a scrubber so you know when it will be over.