Snapchat Takeover

Snapchat is a popular mass media application on many smartphones, tablets, IPads, and other Wi-Fi capable, handheld devices. Originally named “Pictaboo,” Snapchat had a small following, but over the past five years, the app got wildly popular among teenagers between the hours of 9AM and 3PM. The app grew out of an idea that several college students had, and as it came into creation and grew in popularity, it rivaled an internet giant, Facebook.

Facebook attempted to make its own response to Snapchat, a service called “Poke,” which would essentially serve the same purpose as Snapchat; however, instead of drawing public attention back to Facebook, “Poke” ended up increasing the popularity of its rival. Eventually, founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, decided to purchase Snapchat for three million dollars.

Snapchat originated as a service that allowed users to send photos and/or selfies that they took to friends and acquaintances that would disappear within a few seconds. Later, the application added short videos to its list of features along with filters that could differ upon location and day. Some of the filters would be cute things like puppy dog ears, pig ears, or animated hearts; other filters were on the scarier side, taking on looks such as that of a zombie, an angel with hazy eyes, and odd face makeup that was downright unnerving.

Today, Snapchat has 100 million daily active users! People use the app for more than just sending ridiculous pictures to their friends. The “story” part of the app allows people to post videos and pictures to their story to show their friends what’s going on in their day-to-day life as well. In my experience, some people portray their life as it really is while others only put up

pictures and videos from the exciting things they do. This seems to support answers given by researchers about social media by showing that people post what they do in order to appear “cool” to others.

Personally, the app seems like something worth getting, if you can. Although I don’t seem to spend as much time using it as a fair amount of my friends do, it is a

great way to keep in touch with people you are not in direct contact with every day. It also provides a comic relief at times if someone sends a silly looking picture. Snapchat is also useful for keeping up with at least a little bit of what is going on in a friend’s life. Every once in a while, I sit down with my boyfriend and we look at all of the new filters for faces. Most of them are not what we are looking for, but they are great for a laugh.

All in all, I would give this app a 7 out of 10.