
My Little Sister Taught Me How to “Snapchat Like the Teens” - jseliger
http://www.buzzfeed.com/benrosen/how-to-snapchat-like-the-teens
======
cubano
I am the very proud father of a 14yo girl whom I have turned into an teenaged
IT guru over the years.

She learned to read at age 3 using the very well done "Cat In The Hat" desktop
program, and since then I have turned her on to everything from Gmail at age 6
to Ableton at 12.

I've decided that Snapchat is where it ends for me/us last year...she needs
something to be hers and her friends alone, without "Dad" poking is old-ass
nose into things.

I think she really appreciates that I haven't bugged her about connecting and
sharing on that platform, and I know deep down it was time.

But boy...do I sometimes miss that 6yo angel sending me cryptic "i luvu" via
Gmail.

~~~
ceocoder
man this is scary for me, I'm about to have a baby girl (she already has a
Gmail account), I know I'm far from the "dad doesn't get 'it'" phase, but it
is still scary.

Do you have any tips to make this transition easy?

~~~
Outdoorsman
I have four kids...two in college now...the other two are on track to be in a
few years...I get compliments on them all the time...

The number one piece of advice I can give you is to suspend any preconceptions
you have, consciously or unconsciously, about the kind of person they will
be...don't force them into some mold you have in mind for them...they will be
separate and distinct beings from birth...treat them as such with as much love
and guidance as you can muster...let them breathe...

Also: Expose them to as many things as possible, and let them choose the
things that they want to follow up on...

Model good behavior, so they will see what good behavior looks like...point
out good behavior to them as opportunities arise...

And hope luck is with you...

~~~
ceocoder
Thank you very much, and congratulations on raising great kids. I'm really
looking forward to the time ahead, the first few years are really fun - this
is the time when you as a parent (or uncle/aunt) are a superhero to the child,
you can do no wrong.

------
AaronLasseigne
It's a video game for her. She doesn't look at the photos in the morning, she
just responds to keep the chain going. It's like grinding. She has a score,
tries to improve it, get trophies, new equipment (I mean filters), etc.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Yet Another Skinner Box.

EDIT: At least SpaceX and Tesla won the Crunchies instead of junk like
Snapchat.

~~~
lurkinggrue
I'll stick with Neko Atsume.

~~~
dhagz
Mm. Such a fun game. Gotta get all the cats...

------
tajen
There's product placement. He namedrops "Treller" and "VSCO". The article
isn't "How to upgrade your style", it "How to become a Snapchat user." Even
his conclusion is "I'll try more", just like you tell yur teacher when you've
failed and you know you'll fail again. I don't doubt the person is authentic,
but I wonder how much he has worked with BuzzFeed to tune the article.

Still, 1. Snapchat's design is _remarkable_ for its hidden features that you
discover by social-networking, and 2. it's a much more interesting, funny,
interactive press release _presenting the features of a product_ than any
other start-up I've seen. Next product video I make, I'll make it this way.

~~~
bri3d
VSCO is definitely a phenomenon amongst teenagers, regardless of the product
placement possibilities in the article. I'd actually have rather seen an
article on that, because I find it fascinating that a service _without_ any of
the Skinner-box gratification buttons ("like" "retweet" "share" "comment") has
taken off in such a big way.

~~~
fuzzywalrus
VSCO has a rather large following among the prosumer crowd, most of the Apple
"Shot on the iPhone 6" ads mention VSCO and a photographer friend of mine uses
it on his iPad with his 5D on the go. While I haven't used it myself, its
certainly been name checked quite a bit and its success is largely due to it
being a more empowered Instagram on the photography side.

~~~
ascorbic
I know pro photographers who use VSCO to edit their iPhone shots to upload to
Instagram, as the tools are so much more powerful than IG's own. It's a great
app.

------
gavman
It's amazing that at age 22 I've already seemingly "aged-out" of being an
early adopter/power user of new social media (not that Snapchat is new, but I
use it maybe once or twice a day and I've never even heard of "Triller" and
"VSCO"). My 15 year old sister is always rolling her eyes telling me how to
"correctly" use my existing social media apps and I've never heard of most of
the new apps she's into.

~~~
anon4
I didn't know how to use Facebook when I was 18, so don't feel too bad. We
grew up on IRC and PHPBB, social networks of fundamentally different make than
the ones in use now.

Plus, you are (were) one of the dorks and your sister is one of the cool kids.
The two groups have noticeably different modes of socialising.

~~~
EC1
There was for a brief period what I like to call the "wild west" of the web.
All just shitty phpBB and whatnot boards for every topic. There was no concept
of social media. I genuinely got to know the people, mods, smods, gmods,
admins, superadmins (the list of "positions" was always comically long and
induced great drama on most communities). I visited many of those people I
formed connections with online, in person. I feel like social media has
swallowed the people from these communities and created large "highways"
instead of communities.

Facebook groups just aren't the same. There's something comforting knowing it
was "just some fucking guy" hosting the website for fun.

~~~
SunShiranui
I think that kind of cultural expression is something we need to protect and
keep alive.

A future when all of our communities, all of our social interactions, are
routed two a small amount of services hosted by great companies is one I don't
look forward to.

That kind of thing - just setting something up for the hell of it, and slowly
building a community, or a group of friends that way - to me it's very
special.

~~~
spc476
I remember when I first encountered BBSes (mid to late 80s). Dialing into a
slew of local systems and enlarging my social circle. Then there was the
Internet and many of my former BBS social circle were deriding it, saying it
didn't have that community feel.

I remember when I first encountered USENET (early 90s). Reading scores of
USENET groups and enlarging my social circle, even going to far as to go to a
yearly meeting one group held for several years. Then there was the World Wide
Web that everything was being funneled in to. Most of the USENET crowd I was
with were deriding it, saying it didn't have that community feel.

I remember when I first encountered Slashdot (late 90s). Reading score of
comments on trending topics and again, enlarging my social circle. Then there
was Digg and many on Slashdot were deriding that, saying it didn't have that
community feel ...

~~~
EC1
That's all well and good but we've hit the top. Neither of those were billion
dollar corporations.

~~~
spc476
I also remember when no one could get fired for buying IBM, and when no one
could get fired for buying Microsoft. Both were also (and still are) billion
dollar corporations.

------
doublerebel
I'm in Seattle, so maybe I'm biased -- but many of my friends and I from 20s
to 30s all enjoy Snapchat. The moments are real, time-limited, don't require a
reply, aren't faked by filters, and aren't a popularity contest. That makes it
a huge improvement over every other social network we use.

It's by far the easiest way to share a picture or moment with friends -- a
photo is worth 1000 words and the location/time/velocity overlays add a lot of
context. In many ways it's actually one of the most mature popular social
networks -- it clearly learned from earlier social network attempts. I don't
have to be "cool" to anyone but the relevant people to whom I send a snap.

It feels private enough -- hot girls like to use it and that will get anyone
on any platform/club/bar/social location. Sorry to all of you who are using
other slower, more ad-ridden networks and missing out.

~~~
fuzzywalrus
Maybe I'm living in a bubble, but since when has SMS been a painful experience
for messaging? If I'm texting whoever, whenever, I can send a snap and I have
the bonus of not having to take a picture for every text I send. Plus in the
days of modern texting, I use Messages from my computer which makes life even
more pleasant as at work I'm able to keep in touch with friends/family without
even glancing at my phone. I never have to worry if they're on a network with
SMS.

~~~
doublerebel
MMS for picture messaging:

* picture quality sucks

* not ephemeral

* requires multiple clicks (snapchat is just one button)

* difficult to BCC (snapchat sending is ALL bcc, which is _awesome_ )

* doesn't work well from country to country (if at all -- but getting snaps from my international friends is really really cool and works the same as local)

* no easy way to send video

* expects a reply

* is awkward to send in the middle of the night (snapchat is 100% non-emergency and just flashes the notification light)

* can't be sure anyone ever got it (snapchat forces read receipts)

*... the list is long.

~~~
lotu
Half of those are not true on iOS

~~~
Orangeair
That's because it isn't MMS. It's Apple's proprietary messaging system.

------
redwards510
I consider myself an early-adopter. I always try to at least test out new
technology, especially if it's what "the kids" are using. But with Snapchat I
had a strong reaction of "this is dumb, screw this, I'm too old for this".
Plus, no one I knew used it. I guess that makes me old now.

~~~
hebleb
I didn't get it until literally this past Sunday. I've always had it installed
on my phone, and have maybe ~10 friends on it, but I never actually sent
anything. I would occasionally receive a snapchat from my friend, I would
chuckle, and that was the end of it.

This Sunday my wife took my phone and just took a silly picture of ourselves
during the Super Bowl and sent it to everyone on my list. Within minutes, I
was getting a response from pretty much everyone, some people I haven't even
talked to in months, and it was fun and made us laugh! I had the dumbest
epiphany of my life. It's really just a fast, dumb way to communicate. That's
it. Maybe I'll actually use it more now

~~~
derwiki
I tried to use it, but I realized a core component was taking out my phone and
snapping a pic in public. Using my phone in public makes me socially anxious
(feel like I'm "part of the problem"), so I don't see a world where I can
really snapchat.

~~~
krabpaaltje
Ah, social anxiety.

Nobody cares what you do in public.

~~~
derwiki
I do.

------
mschuster91
What in holy blazes, 60 gigabytes in a month just for one fucking stupid app?

1) what carrier does that girl have? And at what cost? With German internet
prices, we'd look at a 500€ per month alone for data, not to mention other
data using apps, calls, SMSes...

2) what the fuck, I use Netflix at home quite regularly and rarely exceed 50
GByte (I'm on a 50/5 VDSL so it isn't a lack of speed) of traffic. How many
billions of crappy front cam selfies can be shared in 60 GB of data?

~~~
lisper
> 60 gigabytes in a month just for one fucking stupid app?

And they don't even look at the pictures!

~~~
pgeorgi
maybe snapchat should take note and send a 100byte version first with
progressive improvement if the image is visible for more than 0.8 seconds (or
whatever the threshold is).

~~~
sp332
Facebook does this for cover photos
[https://code.facebook.com/posts/991252547593574/the-
technolo...](https://code.facebook.com/posts/991252547593574/the-technology-
behind-preview-photos/)

------
state
It's interesting to hear everyone saying 'ah, I'm too old for Snapchat'. At
face value I feel that way too, but I think there's something more going on
here.

Snapchat strikes me as a really unique modality. It's not really a message
type that we can draw some kind of lineage back to PARC or Bell Labs or
whatever. Slack follows a familiar pattern of 'oh yeah, that's just like IRC
and they had those running on Altos a million years ago'. SMS, yeah that's
just chat. And so on...

Was there a Snapchat equivalent back in the dark ages of networked computers?
Not that I'm familiar with (although I'd love to see an example). I think that
fact points to a meaningful difference between the computer that's in your
hand or your pocket all the time and the 'workstation' that's on your desk. A
computer that's always with you can deliver different kinds of messages and
project different kinds of presence from other people you know. I hope
Snapchat is just the beginning of this.

Snapchat doesn't have some kind of physical equivalency like a book or a note
on the fridge. I don't think appreciating that is necessarily pegged to age,
but more to openness. Snapchat is just legitimately unfamiliar and unusual.
From afar, I think that's great.

~~~
pingswept
Seems kind of like Zwrite: text-only, ephemeral messages. It was just text
that appeared in your terminal session. My friends and I used it in
(engineering) grad school in the late 90's.

Good god, there's still a manual online:
[http://web.stanford.edu/group/privacyproject/currentStateUni...](http://web.stanford.edu/group/privacyproject/currentStateUnixAndZephyr.html)

"They have no control over what text the message replaces, but can always
press the key combination control-L to restore their screen."

------
rememberlenny
My close friend in her mid-20s is teaching a journalism class to high school
students, using SnapChat. I've been fascinated by the student's perspective.
They all use Snapchat.

One of the most interesting responses I heard what that Snapchat was what they
used to connect with people they didnt know too well, but wanted to stay in
touch with. For example, if they meet someone, but dont know them too well,
they would exchange Snapchat information. It is literally like Facebook was
for the last generation.

~~~
searine
Because facebook is full of companies and old people.

Snapchat is not about snapchat, it is about having a space to themselves.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
And ten years from now, the kids are going to want to have a space for
themselves, after all the companies and old people are on Snapchat.

~~~
viraptor
It looks like anyone can create new myspace, facebook, snapchat, twitter,
instagram, ... as long as they time it right with the previous one running out
of steam and make it faster to interact with. I'm not sure what can be faster
than snapchat though - live stream?

~~~
kazagistar
Has to be something that lets you fix it up and present your "best self";
looking cooler then you really are in a critical component of any social
network.

~~~
joe5150
Maybe, but sharing your intimate, ugly, unrefined, front-camera-self seems to
have appeal on Snapchat.

------
codeshaman
These young people are addicted to their phones and snapchat.

Later on in life, when they 'grow out' of snapchat, they will replace the
addiction with something else - some other app, but also food, drugs or sex.

Whatever thing they will find interesting, they will pursue it with the same
pattern that they learn with these apps / games.

This future generation will have to find a way to live with all this addictive
technology and survive in the real world.

Might well be that Snapchat (and others) will be looked at as we're now
looking at cigarettes.

~~~
awakeasleep
We're all addicted to a million things (by this definition of addiction)

It's only negative when that becomes a problem somehow in your life.

It's not even clear to me that we'd be better off with a fully mindful
approach to every pleasure and activity.

What is unhealthy though, is disparaging everything other people enjoy.
Especially when you don't have the courage to say "I don't like it" but couch
your disapproval in terms of concern for their "addictions"

~~~
zenocon
it sounds to me from reading that article that her use of it is somewhat
problematic.

------
danso
The more things change the more things stay the same...reading this tip:

> _BROOKE: Don’t Snapchat boys that you like first — wait until they Snapchat
> you._

Reminded me of the movie All About Eve (1950), when Bill says: "What I go
after, I want to go after. I don't want it to come after me. Don't cry. Just
score it as an incomplete forward pass."

...and of course, everything else in past and modern Western culture that
advises women to be the chased.

[1]
[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_About_Eve](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_About_Eve)

------
rtl49
I think our distaste for this obvious misdirection of human attention goes
beyond mere "kids these days" prejudice. SV startups,"social,"
"interconnectedness," this nonsense is creating an asinine, infantilized
generation: easily manipulated, desperate for social acceptance, incapable of
independent thought, and entirely beholden to the whims of mainstream society.
This cutesy "adult finds himself going with the flow" motif just further
normalizes this endless, pathetic pattern of adults emulating children. Barack
Obama and Matt Lauer are taking selfies!? Enough.

~~~
tomlock
I think no generation has really seen their criticism of the new generation as
"kids these days" prejudice. If they did think that, they wouldn't say the
words with such conviction. But, that is kinda what it looks like, right?

~~~
rtl49
Perhaps this line of thinking is why many adults of today let the kids run
rampage while matters of immediate importance to them go unattended. It is
often difficult for a thinking person to admit to a sense of certainty, but at
the risk of seeming to exclude myself from that group, I have to say that I
believe this is a sheer waste of time, and almost certainly an intellectually
destructive one. It is not necessarily that the kids ought to find another
form of leisure, but that the amount of time and energy dedicated to this
activity is unreasonable. And unlike some forms of leisure, this one bears no
fruit. In the years to come, I think there will be few able to say that much
of their time devoted to SnapChat and other such platforms was well spent.

~~~
Thirdegree
"And unlike some forms of leisure, this one bears no fruit."

Increased connection with peers, for one. It's incredibly easy to network now.
I'm young, and wasn't around for what you're looking back on as the good old
days, but I disagree that there is no value to being able to send a one off
"look what I'm doing" to a friend.

~~~
bsder
"Increased connection with peers, for one. It's incredibly easy to network
now."

Is it, really? The girl in this article basically doesn't even _LOOK_ at the
pictures. The "conversation" is effectively: "Look at what I'm doing" "I don't
care what you're doing" "Look at what I'm doing" "I don't care what you're
doing" That doesn't seem like "increased connection".

But, this is also what I expect from a 13 year old.

------
ISL
It's amazing how much our priorities change as we move through life.

Once we've experienced quantity, quality gains importance. Simultaneously, our
need for social acceptance might not diminish, but it becomes far more
refined.

Enlightening article.

------
JabavuAdams
Youth is wasted on the young.

I've loved video games since I was about 7. I've made a good living off of
video games.

In my thirties, I never once thought "Man, I wish I'd spent _more_ time
playing video games in my twenties."

Now, as I turn 40, I wonder how different my life would have been if I'd spent
more time doing other things, instead of playing video games.

The process of aging is impossible to convey fully, but it's fascinating to be
on the other side, having lived the transition.

~~~
visakanv
> Now, as I turn 40, I wonder how different my life would have been if I'd
> spent more time doing other things, instead of playing video games.

Do you mind sharing what these other things are, specifically? Thanks!

~~~
JabavuAdams
1\. Playing fewer video games in university, and focusing more on studying so
that I didn't fail my final year. I started university three years early,
which has opened doors, but having a degree would have opened more. Also,
paying more attention to electromagnetics and thermodynamics.

2\. Continuing to train for Tennis. You really can get too old to do this at
an elite level. I love training, and I love being in the zone: perceiving /
acting / crushing the opposition. Sport is a natural fit for my attention,
physicality, and aggression, whereas long-term projects are more of an uphill
battle.

3\. More travel, although I'm not really that interested in individual people,
so perhaps it would have been wasted. To the extent that I'm interested in
other people now, it's to figure out what they know that I don't know and how
they acquired that knowledge or experience.

Don't get me wrong. My life is pretty sweet, but I do have regrets. It's more
that I'm realizing the difference between turning 30 and turning 40. At 30 you
can pretty much do everything you could do in your twenties. At 40, doors are
closing, esp. regarding physical injuries and recuperation.

I just kind of always assumed that I'd have a PhD by 25, be a concert pianist,
a professional tennis player, and a software millionaire. I've had brushes
with each, but so far no completion. Boo fucking hoo, right? Unrealistic
expectations.

~~~
visakanv
Thanks so much for sharing. At 25, I've been feeling a teeny tiny version of
that (I had a lot of free time in my teenage years that I frittered away, and
wish I had spent it developing skills). But I realize that 10, 20 years from
now I'm going to look at today the same way, too.

------
proc0
I'm laughing at all the people that "feel old". This kid is 13! Literally a
child. If you're in your late 20's or 30's, you're not old, you're just not a
child anymore. Snapchat is nothing that new. It's just communicating with your
friends in a different way that before was not possible. It's like texting on
steroids. I don't see the big deal, and I definitely don't like the fact that
you can't save them. What's the point of data if you can't save it? What if
you capture a truly awesome moment? I'm sure they'll come around at some point
and add the option to save snaps within a certain timeframe.

~~~
Thirdegree
"What's the point of data if you can't save it? What if you capture a truly
awesome moment?"

You can download your own snaps from the app within 24 hours if you posted it
to your story (which you probably did).

------
dpcan
"Parents don’t understand. It’s about being there in the moment."

In WHAT moment? That moment when someone snapchats a snapchat for the sake of
snapchatting?

Hey, I have a 14yo son who texts like a maniac and never takes his earbuds out
of his ears. He has hundreds of thousands of views on his G+ profile, which is
the thing him and his friends are all over. But lately they've moved to
Facebook because they follow their favorite Bands' pages.

It's so confusing.

If our parents wanted to know what was going on in our lives, they quietly
picked up the other phone on the land-line in the house and eavesdropped.

Now, we have to snoop and lurk on our kids' social profiles, or try to sneak a
peak at their texts when their phones buzz.

~~~
glxc
"being there in the moment" = dopamine squirts

~~~
EGreg
being there in the moment = social pressure to fit in and participate in
shared rituals

------
l33tbro
There's a school of thought that says that people use apps like this not to
follow the pleasure principal, but that these platforms provide a brief escape
from the neurotransmitters asdociated with anxiety that make us feel bad (1).
This actually okay Buzzfeed article (who knew?) pretty much confirms that,
only the thesis is distorted by the sample group being excitable teenage
girls.

Seeing the film Boyhood reminded me of how fluid your identity is at this age.
I think these teens will discard Snapchat forms of communication in a few
years, as you change so much in this window. (1)
[http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-
issue-...](http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-
sections/15708/addicting-apps-mobile-technology-health/)

------
Griever
I actually caught a glimpse of this behavior a few weeks ago. I was sitting
next to a kid who was maybe around 16 years old snapchatting to his friends
that our flight was about to depart. He must have taken around 20 selfies,
each with a series of seemingly nonsensical emoji's in the span of 3 minutes.

I was staring dumbfoundedly the entire time. It blew my mind, and made me
realize how out of touch I am in my 27 years of age.

~~~
grubles
Hm. If you are 27 like myself, you were around for MySpace which was just as
bad selfie-wise.

------
yongelee
This is pretty stupid. Teens aren't the trendsetters, they're the early
adopters. Teens follow their older siblings who are the true trend setters.
There's no way a 13 year old determines whats popular, it is older 18-30 cool
people who are the true trend setters. Rappers and pop icons for the most
part, there are no 13 year old pop icons.

~~~
zodPod
This was my thought the whole way through.. He's treating this teen like he
needs to be more like her. It sounds like she's wasting her life while
simultaneously wasting her friends' lives. There's no gain to this..

~~~
daeken
> It sounds like she's wasting her life while simultaneously wasting her
> friends' lives.

It sounds like you spent more time writing this comment than she did to
respond to all of her friend's snaps from the night before. Heroin is a waste
of a life; Snapchat is just a distraction, and a minor one at that.

~~~
freshhawk
A distraction where continued use is necessary for your friendships to remain
in place. That mediates social status among young people. While they learn how
to interact with other people in social situations.

So ... no, not just a distraction. Just a new thing we haven't seen the
outcome of yet (besides some evidence of a large increase in narcissism and a
drop in empathy).

------
paxtonab
Best buzzfeed article I've ever read. Might even be the best UX user story
I've ever read. Talk about finding an evangelist of your product to talk about
what they like/don't like.

------
snickmy
Eyes opening. How I felt old in my 20s just by reading an article :(

~~~
fluxquanta
Snapchat is the first (and likely not the last) mobile app that I (as someone
in my late 20's) just "don't get".

There have been plenty of apps that I've tried and aren't for me so I've
uninstalled them, but I always seem to understand their purpose and what makes
them unique and _desirable_ to use for someone who isn't me. Snapchat on the
other hand...is a mystery.

~~~
jimminy
I'm in my mid-20's now, and I got it at first, though I didn't use it. Thr
point a few years ago was it was a "secure" and "private" place to share with
your friends, thanks to the ephemeral nature.

But over the last 18 months they've pushed towards a more broad social graph
and more public nature and I just don't understand it. It's Instagram with
some time-limit's.

------
lowpro
Just to make clear, most teens are NOT this active. Being one and being that
most of my friends are still in high school, I'd estimate 1 in 10 are as
active as this girl is with snapchat. As far as texting goes, yeah about 1 out
of 2 are constantly texting including myself, but it's all to fight boredom.
Boredom in school, boredom watching TV. It's like ADD but everyone has it.

But for snapchat, most people are in the 20,000-40,000 range, with some up to
200,000 and some down to 2,000, haven't seen any above or below that.

------
zyxley
> BROOKE: OMG!! 30?? Only NARPs have less than 150. > ME: What the hell is a
> NARP? > BROOKE: Nonathletic Regular Person. NARP.

Wow, I feel old.

~~~
qrendel
Checking urban dictionary, seems to be mostly language of the jock/lacrosse
crowd (or at least originated there). Perhaps reflects more on his sister's
particular social circle than the view of teens in general. Wouldn't know, I'm
"old" too.

------
thetmkay
On an semi-related note:

Some of this sounds exactly like Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love
Story".

The way the girls talk to themselves and about other people, it's incredible a
40-year-old Russian male to capture female American teenagers so well.

------
matt_wulfeck
I feel even older. Here I thought people used snapchat just for sending naked
photos. The headline for this article made me cringe.

------
viraptor
So what they're saying is that there are people uploading 60GB data of faces
of the same person every month? How does snapchat not have the best face
recognition algorithm by now? Even facebook doesn't have so many samples.

~~~
someguy1233
Well they kind-of do.

If you have ever used snapchat, they have these strange face-tracking filters,
for example one of the most known is the "barf rainbows", where if it detects
you've opened your mouth, it aligns rainbows coming out of it, and enlarges
your eyes.

------
dookahku
I never really understood how snapchat works. I don't know anyone on it, how
do I add people? The only snaps I got were from the Snapchat Team itself.

~~~
cheatdeath
\- Add people from your contacts: swipe down from the main screen -> add
friends

\- Add people by username: celebrities often post their username on other
social networks, you can find aggregate lists

\- Add people by "snapcode": hold the camera over someone else's phone while
they display their snapcode, your snapcode is the yellow QR code thing you see
when you swipe down from the main screen

------
asgfoi
It felt nice when you had to physically meet a person to exchange the latest
meme. The physical vicinity adds so much quality to the social experience. I
cannot talk to friends the same way over char or even the phone than in
person, it just feels weird.

~~~
sangnoir
_Is that how it was before the Internet, grandpa?_

> It felt nice when you had to...

Said every aging generation ever, I mean, the last part of that sentence could
be any of (read a book|sit down and listen to the radio|watch broadcast
television) and someone out there reminisces fondly of the better, simpler
times.

~~~
eru
Characteristically, Brooks in the `Mythical Man Month' has no nostalgia for
bringing your program in punch cards to the data center, and sees timesharing
as an unalloyed good.

(I think it's because the bad old days were still very fresh in memory when he
wrote the essays.)

------
tbabb
Obligatory:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0wTtiJygY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0wTtiJygY)

I am definitely having this moment right now.

------
rayiner
I feel like these days teens are less tech savvy than people my age (30s). My
siblings in law 14-16and they can't craft effective google searches to save
their lives.

------
downandout
The thing that stuck out to me was the girl that used 60GB of mobile data, and
that even the girl he was interviewing said that bandwidth was a major issue.
Depending on her friend's parents' data plan, 60GB could easily result in a
bill of over $1,000. It makes me wonder a) if Snapchat is compressing as
aggressively as they should, and b) if an in-app mobile bandwidth meter might
make simiar apps more competitive.

~~~
steveoc64
Thought about that too, but then, as the girl in the article suggests, its not
the excessive bandwidth use that is the problem ... teh real prob is that
parents just dont understand, its all about living in the moment.

Im sure that silly old Daddy, once he got his head around that simple concept,
could just appreciate it for what it is, and stop stressing out over some
stupid bill. He is just missing the whole point.

------
fencepost
Good lord, why would you want to?

I actually have a snapchat account that I set up to see what was going on at
the college near me (public curated "college" story that was being locally
advertised for a while), and I have been known to poke around on Minecraft
servers on slow evenings when I don't want to think.

That said, the very thought of interacting with any teens actively using
snapchat gives me the heebie jeebies in a huge and ugly way. It'd be hard to
overstate my desire to not interact with anyone that age on snapchat or really
anything else that involves video or photos.

Even without the concerns about avoiding anything that can be even perceived
as skeevy, I have absolutely nothing except some demographic elements
(country, race, have been known to play stupid video games) in common with
snapchatters, and aside from adding in the family element it sounds like
neither does the writer. So, unless I'm trying to market to them (which has
its own skeeviness factor) it's like wrestling a greased pig - lots of
annoyance and nobody's having any fun there.

------
largote
40 replies in a minute? The app is so slow it takes like 3 to 5 seconds to
even display each snap, and this is on a top-of-the-line phone.

------
whatever_dude
This is terrifying.

------
allochthon
I am now 40. Reading this article, I felt like an anthropologist observing an
alien civilization. So many questions.

------
quadrangle
I wish people wouldn't make all these age-based assumptions. When I was 12, I
was already disgusted at the indulgent addictions to superficial social shit
that my peers did. I'm sure if I were 20 years younger today, my feelings
about this nonsense wouldn't be any different.

~~~
rpgmaker
But you weren't part of the majority of your peers. The generalization is
about the majority.

~~~
quadrangle
Right, but I'm not part of the majority now either. The majority of older
adults are still into superficial crap.

------
2bitencryption
Snapchat is a surprisingly great platform. I'm 23 so I guess I'm pushing the
target audience, but all my friends and I use it, and it's probably made
keeping in touch with them about 1000x easier.

It's just so simple. It takes sending photos down to its very base level.

------
lquist
I wish I had snapchat when I was growing up instead of just AIM! It's one of
the new messaging platforms that I am excited about because it introduces a
new (mostly visual) means of communication.

------
Sideloader
"This is a personal, non-sponsored post by a member of BuzzFeed's ad content
team."

Um, so it's an ad for SnapChat that SnapChat didn't pay for...or not an ad by
a guy on the "ad content team"? If it's the latter why mention it at all (or
simply say "this is not an advertisement"). The convoluted language makes me
think it is an ad. Anyway...

Yes, tweens are very prolific social media users...they're practically born
with the skills in their blood. Ten-year olds are skilfully filming, producing
and editing videos, and uploading them to YouTube, that leave people in their
30s and up speechless.

The generations that came of age before about 1998 to 2000ish, when the
Internet and digital technology started becoming ubiquitous and taught in
schools, are still somewhat baffled by even basic technology. Example...during
a dinner in 2014 that included my sister and her boyfriend (who are both in
their mid-30s) he notices the customized icon arrangement and screen flip
effects on my phone (iPhone, jailbroken) and asks if he can do that on his
phone. I ask him if he'd bought an iPhone (I remembered him having a Windows
phone) and he says no, pulls out his Lumia and starts fiddling with it. After
a moment he asks "so what do I have to do to get that effect?" and I say
"that's a Windows phone, isn't it?"..."I think so, but I can jailbreak it,
right?"..."jailbreaking is an iPhone thing, I don't think there's a Windows
phone equivalent..."oh, it won't work if it's Windows?"..."um, no, you need an
iPhone but if you have an Android device you can root it and install customs
ROMs which is sort of like jailbreaking"...."cool so I can install Android on
this phone (Lumia), right?"... _facepalm_

Later that evening my sister (who is much more tech savvy than her boyfriend
and an advanced social media user) notices that my headphones are cordless. "I
never noticed those headphones before, I hate tangled cords etc. "..."yeah
Bluetooth is pretty handy"..."is it included with your plan?"..."is what
included?"..."the Bluetooth service"..."it's built into the device and...wait,
you thought there was an extra charge for using Bluetooth?" "no, um, I was
just wondering" _facepalm_

They are both educated, fairly worldly, middle-class. She has a Masters (arts)
and worked at a law firm and he was finishing his PhD (arts). Oh, and they
were both surprised to learn they can listen to mp3s on their Windows and
Android devices.

I've met other "older" people who are absolutely clueless about basic features
and options on their computers and devices (e.g. getting rid of the annoying
bloatware that comes pre-installed on off-the-shelf Windows machines, blocking
browser ads, connecting and configuring peripherals) but their level of
ignorance really surprised me.

I've since noticed a sharp contrast in tech literacy between people who
graduated or left high school before the Internet exploded and those who were
introduced to it in school. For so-called digital natives like the author's
sister, and my 14 year-old cousin, the line between what used to be called
real life and social media has dissolved and fully integrating social media
into their day-to-day lives comes almost naturally. It's not a new thing...it
just is and they use it at an intuitive level...and expect new platforms to
emerge and features to continually evolve.

Interesting times for the human animal...

------
minimaxir
Justin Kan made a post a month ago on the virtues of Snapchat's complexity:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10859860](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10859860)

I'll echo the comment I made there that I am concerned that the teenage-focus
will be the lesson startups take away from Snapchat, and that might lead to
usability regression for apps as a whole.

------
sakopov
I read a lot of "I'm feeling old now." Interesting, because you should be
feeling like the fucking Indiana Jones compared to the little drones parents
are raising today. This is just very very sad. I'd love to actually comment
something constructive about this article but it absolutely blows my mind that
parents are OK with all of this.

~~~
rdancer
Get off this guy's lawn, you guys!

------
fiatjaf
I don't understand why anyone would want to be "good at Snapchat". We, as
adults, must agree this thing is stupid.

------
lost_name
NPR did a segment on Instagram that sounds an awful lot like this. See Act One
of "Status Update": [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/573/s...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/573/status-update)

------
pacomerh
Fortunate are the parents who can live around these new creatures that consume
data without actually assimilating anything. I remember I used to feel really
guilty when I played nintendo for hours and hours, discovering levels and
fighting bosses. Today, I compare it to this...and I feel a little smarter.

~~~
dalore
That a bit elitist. But I bet our parents felt the same way about us in front
of our video screens and their newspapers.

~~~
pacomerh
They might have yes. But tell me with honesty which of the two activities is
emptier.

~~~
egeozcan
Well, IMHO, when you are playing Nintendo you are just consuming and Snapchat
involves creating, so...

------
6841iam
Is this the behavior of the average snapchat user or that of a power user?
That's the key question.

~~~
roddux
Judging from the article, I'd lean heavily toward the latter. Nobody I've seen
uses it this much.

------
haalia
Well, that was eye-opening. I honestly thought Snapchat was only used to sext
off pics of naughty bits.

~~~
daveloyall
That's what I thought, too. I thought the core feature was 'self destructing
messages/photos'.

I also presumed that a dedicated power user could preserve said photos
forever, so I immediately wrote the whole thing off.

~~~
rpgmaker
> I also presumed that a dedicated power user could preserve said photos
> forever, so I immediately wrote the whole thing off.

Same here. One of the girls also describes how to screenshot the app without
the other user being notified. It's doubtful that most teens sexting using the
app are unaware of this.

------
jld89
This is crazy. Just crazy. 60gb. SIXTY. I probably send one snap once a week
and I'm 26 so not really old.

Is this really the new generation? Wasting data usage for pictures you don't
really look at?

------
horsecaptin
Being a teen seems like a lot more work than it used to be :(

------
adamgsteele
One of the better things I've read on BuzzFeed before...if not the best. I can
finally wrap my head around what is Snapchat.

~~~
PeterTMayer
:) That was funny, you made my day.

------
gleenn
The super evil thing is how the feds or whomever has a ridiculously rich
facial recognition dataset being served on a silver platter

------
magoon
This makes me feel old, but I really can't understand Snapchat's interface.

------
estomagordo
I'm so terribly worried this might not be satire.

------
obelisk_
Does Snapchat have any revenue? If so, how?

~~~
jsmeaton
[http://www.businessinsider.com.au/snapchat-is-on-track-to-
ge...](http://www.businessinsider.com.au/snapchat-is-on-track-to-
generate-100-million-in-revenue-2015-10) is pretty insightful. Ads, sponsored
filters, and users can now purchase filters.

------
s4chin
Damn, I'm 20 and I already feel old.

------
taigeair
So snapchat is their email.

------
digi_owl
Mayfly comes to mind...

------
kevinwang
holy shit i'm thankful that i barely missed being that generation.

------
avodonosov
I spend all time online and don't even know what is snapchat...

------
benbenolson
A Buzzfeed article? On Hacker News? I never thought I'd see the day.

------
nkg
I am thinking about community managers and how they would be able to engage
anyone who just collects snap at lightspeed...

------
eloy
Wow. Buzzfeed on HN.

This article is quite interesting to read, but I still hate to use Snapchat.

------
purplerabbit
This article is totes orthogonal in awesomeness to the usual stuff on this
site. Enjoyed it a lot.

------
DiabloD3
The most damning thing about Snapchat:

ME: I’ve seen how fast you do these responses… How are you able to take in all
that information so quickly?

BROOKE: I don’t really see what they send. I tap through so fast. It’s rapid
fire.

I closed the tab at that moment. That alone proved Snapchat has no relevancy
to anyone, and is a waste of time and money.

~~~
josephpmay
99% of people don't use Snapchat this way, at least from my experience

~~~
mkhalil
Can confirm. Score of > 30k.

------
imaginenore
I'm going to say this. This is fucking dumb, and a huge waste of time. It's
orders of magnitude dumber than watching funny cat pictures for hours.

There are so many interesting things around us. If you want to be creative,
you have options. If you want to connect with people and have a meaningful
conversation, you have options. If you want something funny, you have options.
Etc, etc, etc.

These teenagers are literally wasting their life on bullshit.

/rant over

------
lsv1
This probably isn't the best place for this response and I sincerely apologize
in advanced for my crude response but... BuzzFeed and this type of social
media can fucking kill itself, I believe there is no place for this on HN.

