Why Snapchat Wins
It’s one of the better social media apps…
You can now run for political office through Snapchat. It’s a pretty unique feature they recently added to empower younger people to be more politically engaged. Will it work? 🤷🏾♂️ But, it got me thinking about Snapchat as a whole relative to other apps and why I’ve been a fan since downloading it in 2012.
At its core, Snapchat does not operate like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter at all. It’s not about getting more friends or having a massive following (those numbers aren’t really promoted on a profile). There’s no “feed” so it doesn’t rely on users’ endlessly scrolling at an unhealthy level. In contrast, Snapchat has always been about close friends. It’s not the edited, glossy version of yourself you put on Instagram every few weeks, but leans on an authentic you and your day-to-day (meals, candid takes, quirky moments). A user’s culture and environment on Snapchat are close-knit (No Filter does a good analysis of this), so people are more open to sharing themselves frequently and honestly. In fact, the creators tried to make it the opposite of Instagram, from its foundation down to the terminology used. You “send” a snap whereas you “post” on Instagram. You “add” a friend versus “following” them. All of this steers Snapchat away from classic social media tropes.
No toxic political echo chambers like on Twitter. No influencers with unrealistic lives like on Instagram. No endless feed that you spend hours on like TikTok. No constant need to check unless someone sent you something. Sure, there’s some gamification to it (aka the streaks), but it’s very watered down and not as addictive. All this can happen on Snapchat (and it does to an extent), but it’s not nearly as prevalent as on other apps.
Not to mention, Snapchat for so many in my generation is where our memories live (it’s literally called “memories”). So many funny moments, trips, outings, dinners, college fails, family vacations, you name it can be saved. For me, it’s almost second nature to save a snap before I send it. If you think about how Snapchat started with the“ooo it disappears,” this is a major change in a better direction that just shows how much the platform has evolved in the last decade.
Even Snap Originals aren’t all bad. Good Luck America, a daily political news show, is a pretty good example of how the app can make educational shows watchable ( a style that could have worked for Quibi). While most people probably don’t even know these shows exist, some are definitely worth a look and it shows how Snapchat has made steady-ish gains towards being an entertainment platform. Facebook Watch and the soon-to-be-killed IGTV have done this, I just think Snapchat has figured out “vertical viewing” a little faster than its competitors.
My one caveat to this is Snapchat’s “Discover” page. It’s basically tabloid news for social media, filled with irrelevant shows and news tiles that range from who got canceled to an X-ray of something someone swallowed. It’s a digital board of gossipy magazines that you almost always avoid in the real world. It’s a feature many wish they changed. However, there are reputable publications like The Economist and The Washington Post which have interesting stories I like that you can read and tap through, but I bet they don’t get as many views sadly.
Tldr: Snapchat is far from bullet-proof and it’s filled with a lot of the same problems as any social media platform, but relative to most of the other major apps, it wins (for now).
