Lacey Lewis
FSU
Snapchat's Impact on Popular Culture
In the world of everchanging technology, five years is as long as a decade. Every week hundreds of new applications (apps) are created and sold to billions of users worldwide. This circumstance makes the massive and enduring popularity of snapchat unreal. However, since its creation in 2011, Snapchat has had vast amounts of downloads with 150 million users across the globe who actively use the app daily. The picture sharing app has become a prominent topic in popular culture in several countries. In its construction, the purpose was to create an app in which users could share pictures that would be erased within seconds. Yet, today snapchat is used for much more with many modes of communication including visual, audio/video, and text. The happy and fun nature of Snapchat incites users to get on the app every day and leave behind many artifacts including stories, advertisements and filters, and live event streaming.
Snapchat Stories
Historically Snapchat was only used for simple photo sharing, but now it is used for so much more. One of the modes used is still visual, although it has grown from photos being shared between two users to a more larger audience. In 2013 Snapchat released the “MyStory” function which allows an individual to broadcast a Snapchat experience for 24 hours before they self-destruct (Stampler). The audience of these stories are the friends that want to keep up on the important events of other’s lives. At its core, this feature enables users to stay in touch. One can add as many pictures to their story as they please and each will stay on for the given time. According to the Snapchat designers these stories play forward because “it makes sense to share moments in the order you experience them” (Inc.). Yet the audience and purpose grew much larger when “Mystory” later led to “Ourstory” in 2014. Time Magazine described the function of OurStory in 2014 by explaining that “users who are at the same location can use “Our Story” to add their videos, photos, and doodles to a publicly viewable content stream” allowing for users who are not even friends with each other to view the snaps (Stampler).With this new features many new opportunities became available to consumers. For example, now stories are much more widespread with celebrities, professional sports teams, and college campuses all sharing stories. As shown in figure 1 “OurStory” has become popular on many college campuses. Quickly becoming a common platform for students to complain, ask for advice, or simply try to convince a friend to go out with them. These stories can be informative, persuasive, narrative, or descriptive. This globalization of the app has led to many new visual artifacts being left by users worldwide and they are much more accessible to every user than the original pictures were in the beginning of the app’s life.
2 in 1: Snapchat Advertisements & Filters
Snapchat Advertisements
In 2015 Snapchat opened its doors to advertisers. Companies such as Comedy Central, People Magazine, ESPN, etc. found it the perfect place to share their promotions and stories. In the beginning the advertisements were strictly to promote products and deals the companies were having, but like so many other features of Snapchat, that has changed. These ads have grown from straightforward visual forms of communication to more complex audio and video modes. The advertisements usually play in between the stories of friends. Although a user could tap the screen and skip the ad it has caused concern from some users. Nonetheless, Companies focus on advertising through Snapchat and other social media platforms because of the tremendous number of Millennials that use the app. The audience for these ads are young people who will be interested in their products. According to Snapchat’s official website, on any given day Snapchat reaches 41% of all 18-34-year-old people in the United States (Inc). As seen in figure 2, 86% of U.S. users range from the ages of 13-34. However, the young audience could possibly be a downfall for Snapchat executives. Because of the young audience certain companies have decided not to advertise through Snapchat. In an interview with Ad Age, the president of global advertising network Tribal Worldwide's U.S. operations said that the rumors of rampant cyber-bullying and sexting on Snapchat platform could dissuade brands from wanting to put their messages beside such unseemly content. "I struggle to think of any of our clients who would be willing to even pilot advertising on Snapchat," Tribal U.S. president of U.S. operations Rich Guest said. Tribal is a huge agency that handles McDonald's, Volkswagen and Reebok, among many others (Taube).. These ads could be helpful or harmful to the reputation of Snapchat between the hesitance for companies to use the app and users who do not want ads to play while they are watching their friend’s stories. No matter how much criticism they get these ads serve their purpose of informing their audience and enticing them to buy new things
Snapchat Filters
Another type of advertising that companies use on Snapchat are the filters. The feature filter is one of the newer additions to Snapchat’s playbook. Essentially a user can hold down the screen while taking a picture and these different features can be applied to their photo. Snapchat creates filters, stickers, emojis, etc. to go on a user’s “selfie” to remind them of the product or event in which Snapchat is promoting. This is seen in Figure 4 with the movie Ted2. When this movie came out it was promoted on Snapchat with cute filters for users to incorporate in their pictures These simple filters serve to remind the user and persuade them to attend the promoted event. These promotions help to improve Snapchat’s brand because they become a topic of conversation. The audience of these filters are any user and are used to inform them on upcoming events, deals, etc. The ads and filters and the discussion that is created about them are artifacts left behind by the use of Snapchat by consumers and companies alike.
Live Event Streaming
Since its creation, Snapchat has gone from being a simple photo sharing app to fostering group stories, advertisements, and promoting products for numerous companies within the United States and abroad. The third artifact that Snapchat has created is live event streaming. Just like the two artifacts before this is yet another way that Snapchat is becoming a much more united app than before. However, the mode used in these streaming’s are audio/video. The live Snapchat stories shows life in different cities and behind-the-scenes footage. Time Magazine called Live stories “… the company’s most unusual and compelling feature” claiming the stories have “turned Snapchat into a broadcast platform like NBC or YouTube. However, instead of being powered by Hollywood actors or up-and-coming online video stars, they are a kind of real-time, crowdsourced documentary made up on the fly by the app’s 100 million daily users” (Luckerson). On January 21, 2017, there was a live Snapchat story following the Women’s March on Washington. Women (and men) across the country sent in snaps to the live story that everyone in the country could see. Users utilize these stories to get their opinions and feelings towards topics out in the public eye. The live stories are not always political though. They mostly follow big events that affect the entire country. Other examples of live stories are the Super Bowl, World Series, holidays across the nation, etc. The audience of these stories are generally anyone who has the Snapchat app but more specifically any user who is interested in the topic that is being presented. On any given day there are about 3 live stories following some important event around the country. Whenever there is a big event in the United States, or in any of the countries where Snapchat is big, there will be a live event streaming on Snapchat. It is almost a modern news outlet for millennials in which they can see unbiased live videos of people who are at the event and/or participating in it. The videos that are produced during these important events that will go down in history are some of the most important artifacts created by the use of Snapchat. One day these videos could end up in the Smithsonian and serve a new purpose; to educate a new, younger audience.
It is plain to see that Snapchat is an enormous pop culture icon that has a daily effect on its users. It leaves in its wake so many significant impacts on society. The three artifacts of Snapchat, advertisements, product promotion, and live event streaming influence pop culture every day. These artifacts have an impact on millennial’s everyday life’s and continue to affect popular culture daily.
Works Cited
Inc, Snapchat. Snap Ads. n.d. <https://www.snapchat.com/ads/>.
Inc., Snapchat. Surprise! 3 October 2013.
Stampler, Laura. Snapchat Just Unveiled a New Feature. 17 June 2014.
Stats, Digital Company Statitstics. 100 Amazing Snapchat Statistics. 15 January 2017.
Reflection
Project one was the first English paper I’ve ever that was based on a topic of my choosing and I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. As I was sitting there on my couch thinking about what to write my phone buzzed. I picked it up, opened my snap, and continued to think of possible topics. Then I realized that nothing affects my life and so many others’ than Snapchat. Snapchat is used every day by millions of users and leaves so many artifacts in its wake. When I made this breakthrough I realized just how easy it would be to identify three or more artifacts that Snapchat leaves. I became excited to write and research and to find artifact and how they affect popular culture! I believe that this excitement showed through in my writing by how excited I was and how well researched my topic was. Although it was kind of hard to analyze, I do think that I put a lot of effort into my paper and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It is clear that Snapchat hits a lot of millennials but its audience really range to anyone who actively participates on the app.
Draft 2
In the world of everchanging technology, five years is as long as a decade. Every week hundreds of new applications (apps) are created and sold to billions of users worldwide. This circumstance makes the massive and enduring popularity of snapchat unreal. However, since its creation in 2011, Snapchat has had vast amounts of downloads with 150 million users across the globe who actively use the app daily. The picture sharing app has become a prominent topic in popular culture in several countries. In its construction, the purpose was to create an app in which users could share pictures that would be erased within seconds. Yet, today snapchat is used for many purposes such as advertisements, product promotions, and live events.
Snapchat’s Creation
In order to discuss the impact that snapchat has on pop culture today we must rewind and look back at its creation. In 2011, two young Stanford University students were given an assignment for one of their graphic design courses to create an application so Evan Spiegel who was a product design major and his friend Bobby Murphy who performed the coding created an app called “Picaboo”. As stated earlier the sole purpose was to create a selfie app in which users could share pictures that were “short-lived” and “self-deleting”. When presented to their class it was clear that the concept of temporary photos was well liked and the idea to take their app to the next level was reinforced. Picaboo was initially launched in July 2011 and later relaunched as Snapchat in September.
Snapchat’s Impact on Society
However, the Snapchat we knew back then is not the same as it is today. Historically it was only used for photo sharing and now it is used for so much more. In 2013 Snapchat released the “MyStory” function which allows an individual to broadcast a Snapchat experience for 24 hours before they self-destruct (Stampler). Any ‘friend’ on Snapchat that the individual has will be able to see the story regardless of whether the person individually sent them the snap. This has allowed for Snapchat users to choose between having a picture get immediately deleted or to share it with their friends and delay its deletion for a whole day. This feature enables users to stay in touch and up to date on each other’s life’s. One can add as many pictures to their story as they please and each will stay on for the given time. According to the Snapchat designers these stories play forward because “it makes sense to share moments in the order you experience them” (Inc.). Personal snapchat stories paved the way for other social media platforms as well. For example, in 2016 Instagram announced that they will have a story feature as well to allow users to mass communicate. For more importantly, however, “Mystory” later led to “Ourstory” in 2014. Time Magazine described the function of OurStory in 2014 by explaining that “users who are at the same location can use “Our Story” to add their videos, photos, and doodles to a publicly viewable content stream” allowing for users who are not even friends with each other to view the snaps (Stampler). This globalization of the app has led to many new features such as advertising, product placement, and live event broadcasts. Essentially, the creation of OurStory and the maturing of the app has led to the creation of some of the key artifacts that Snapchat has left on Popular Culture.
Advertisements
In 2015 Snapchat opened to advertisers. Companies such as Comedy Central, People Magazine, ESPN, etc. found it the perfect place to share their promotions and stories. Each day these companies update their stories with new deals, ads, and news stories in an attempt to entice Snapchat users to buy their products or subscribe to their company. In the beginning the advertisements were strictly to promote products and deals the companies were having, but like so many other features of Snapchat, that has changed. Companies focus on advertising through Snapchat and other social media platforms because of the tremendous number of Millennials that use the app. According to Snapchat’s official website, on any given day Snapchat reaches 41% of all 18-34-year-old people in the United States (Inc). As seen in figure 2, 86% of U.S. users range from the ages of 13-34. However, the young audience could possibly be a downfall for Snapchat executives. Because of the young audience certain companies have decided not to advertise through Snapchat. In an interview with Ad Age, the president of global advertising network Tribal Worldwide's U.S. operations said that the rumors of rampant cyber-bullying and sexting on Snapchat platform could dissuade brands from wanting to put their messages beside such unseemly content. "I struggle to think of any of our clients who would be willing to even pilot advertising on Snapchat," Tribal U.S. president of U.S. operations Rich Guest said. Tribal is a huge agency that handles McDonald's, Volkswagen and Reebok, among many others (Taube). Nothing to worry about for Snapchat executives though, as shown in Figure 4 nowadays the stories that these companies share is focused more on their entertainment value than to actually selling a product to the viewer. Snapchat does product promotion in another way which is another artifact they leave behind in their wake of pop culture molding.
Product Promotion
The product promotions that comes out of Snapchat is another artifact they have. In attempts to promote products to their users Snapchat focuses more on personal snaps from user to user than ‘Story’ snaps from big companies. Word of mouth has always been an effective way of marketing and Snapchat believes that by promoting conversation about upcoming movies, concerts, shows, etc. they are enticing users to go to them. One way in which Snapchat initiates conversations are by utilizing their filter feature. The feature filter is one of the newer additions to Snapchat’s playbook. Essentially one can hold down the screen while taking a picture and these different features can be applied to their photo. An example of a product promoting filters are the filters shown in Figure 5. When the movie Ted2 came out users could turn any regular picture into a picture featuring Ted and therefore promoting the movie not only to their friends but to themselves. These simple filters serve to remind the user and persuade them to attend the promoted event. These promotions help to improve Snapchat’s brand because they become a topic of conversation. If one user were to tell the other about the “cool new snap filter” that would entice the second user to get onto the app and view the filter thereby helping Snapchat and the company/event in which they are promoting.
Live Event Streaming
It is clear to see how far Snapchat has come since its initial creation. It went from being a simple photo sharing app to fostering advertisements and promoting products for numerous companies within the United States and abroad. The third artifact that Snapchat has created is live event streaming. Just like the two artifacts before this is yet another way that Snapchat is becoming a much more united app than before. The live Snapchat stories shows life in different cities and behind-the-scenes footage. Time Magazine called Live stories “… the company’s most unusual and compelling feature” claiming the stories have “turned Snapchat into a broadcast platform like NBC or YouTube. However, instead of being powered by Hollywood actors or up-and-coming online video stars, they are a kind of real-time, crowdsourced documentary made up on the fly by the app’s 100 million daily users” (Luckerson). On January 21, 2017, there was a live Snapchat story following the Women’s March on Washington. Women (and men) across the country sent in snaps to the live story that everyone in the country could see. Users utilize these stories to get their opinions and feelings towards topics out in the public eye. The live stories are not always political though. They mostly follow big events that affect the entire country. Other examples of live stories are the Super Bowl, World Series, holidays across the nation, etc. The audience of these stories are generally anyone who has the Snapchat app but more specifically any user who is interested in the topic that is being presented. On any given day there are about 3 live stories following some important event around the country. These artifacts again show how Snapchat has grown as an app.
It is plain to see that Snapchat is an enormous pop culture icon that has a daily effect on its users. It leaves in its wake so many significant impacts on society. The three artifacts of Snapchat, advertisements, product promotion, and live event streaming influence pop culture every day. These artifacts have an impact on millennial’s everyday life’s and continue to affect popular culture daily.
Draft 1
In the world of everchanging technology, five years is as long as a decade. Every week hundreds of new applications (apps) are created and sold to billions of users worldwide. This circumstance makes the massive and enduring popularity of snapchat unreal. However, since its creation in 2011, Snapchat has had vast amounts of downloads with 150 million users across the globe who actively use the app daily. The picture sharing app has become a prominent topic in popular culture in several countries. In its construction, the purpose was to create an app in which users could share pictures that would be erased within seconds. Yet, today snapchat is used for many purposes such as advertisements, product promotions, and live events.
Snapchat’s Creation and Influence on Society
In order to discuss the impact that snapchat has on pop culture today we must rewind and look back at its creation. In 2011, two young Stanford University students were given an assignment for one of their graphic design courses to create an application so Evan Spiegel who was a product design major and his friend Bobby Murphy who performed the coding created an app called “Picaboo”. As stated earlier the sole purpose was to create a selfie app in which users could share pictures that were “short-lived” and “self-deleting”. When presented to their class it was clear that the concept of temporary photos was well liked and the idea to take their app to the next level was reinforced. Picaboo was initially launched in July 2011 and later relaunched as Snapchat in September. However, the Snapchat we knew back then is not the same as it is today. Historically it was only used for photo sharing and now it is used for so much more. In 2013 Snapchat released the “MyStory” function which allows an individual to broadcast a Snapchat experience for 24 hours before they self-destruct (Stampler). Any ‘friend’ on Snapchat that the individual has will be able to see the story regardless of whether the person individually sent them the snap. This has allowed for Snapchat users to choose between having a picture get immediately deleted or to share it with their friends and delay its deletion for a whole day. This feature enables users to stay in touch and up to date on each other’s life’s. One can add as many pictures to their story as they please and each will stay on for the given time. According to the Snapchat designers these stories play forward because “it makes sense to share moments in the order you experience them” (Inc.). Personal snapchat stories paved the way for other social media platforms as well. For example, in 2016 Instagram announced that they will have a story feature as well to allow users to mass communicate. For more importantly, however, “Mystory” later led to “Ourstory” in 2014. Time Magazine described the function of OurStory in 2014 by explaining that “users who are at the same location can use “Our Story” to add their videos, photos, and doodles to a publicly viewable content stream” allowing for users who are not even friends with each other to view the snaps (Stampler). This globalization of the app has led to many new features such as advertising, product placement, and live event broadcasts. Essentially, the creation of OurStory and the maturing of the app has led to the creation of some of the key artifacts that Snapchat has left on Popular Culture
Advertisements
In 2015 Snapchat opened to advertisers. Companies such as Comedy Central, People Magazine, ESPN, etc. found it the perfect place to share their promotions and stories. Each day these companies update their stories with new deals, ads, and news stories in an attempt to entice Snapchat users to buy their products or subscribe to their company. In the beginning the advertisements were strictly to promote products and deals the companies were having, but like so many other features of Snapchat, that has changed. Companies focus on advertising through Snapchat and other social media platforms like it because of the tremendous number of Millennials that use the app. According to Snapchat’s official website, on any given day Snapchat reaches 41% of all 18-34-year-old people in the United States (Inc). As seen in figure 2, 86% of U.S. users range from the ages of 13-34. However, the young audience could possibly be a downfall for Snapchat executives. Because of the young audience certain companies have decided not to advertise through Snapchat. In an interview with Ad Age, the president of global advertising network Tribal Worldwide's U.S. operations said that the rumors of rampant cyber-bullying and sexting on Snapchat platform could dissuade brands from wanting to put their messages beside such unseemly content. "I struggle to think of any of our clients who would be willing to even pilot advertising on Snapchat," Tribal U.S. president of U.S. operations Rich Guest said. Tribal is a huge agency that handles McDonald's, Volkswagen and Reebok, among many others (Taube). Nothing to worry about for Snapchat executives though, as shown in Figure 4 nowadays the stories that these companies share is focused more on their entertainment value than to actually selling a product to the viewer. Snapchat does product promotion in another way which is another artifact they leave behind in their wake of pop culture molding.
Product Promotion
The product promotions that comes out of Snapchat is another artifact they have. In attempts to promote products to their users Snapchat focuses more on personal snaps from user to user than ‘Story’ snaps from big companies. Word of mouth has always been an effective way of marketing and Snapchat believes that by promoting conversation about upcoming movies, concerts, shows, etc. they are enticing users to go to them. One way in which Snapchat initiates conversations are by utilizing their filter feature. The feature filter is one of the newer additions to Snapchat’s playbook. Essentially one can hold down the screen while taking a picture and these different features can be applied to their photo. An example of a product promoting filters are the filters shown in Figure 5. When the movie Ted2 came out users could turn any regular picture into a picture featuring Ted and therefore promoting the movie not only to their friends but to themselves. These simple filters serve to remind the user and persuade them to attend the promoted event. These promotions help to improve Snapchat’s brand because they become a topic of conversation. If one user were to tell the other about the “cool new snap filter” that would entice the second user to get onto the app and view the filter thereby helping Snapchat and the company/event in which they are promoting.
Live Event Streaming
It is clear to see how far Snapchat has come since its initial creation. It went from being a simple photo sharing app to fostering advertisements and promoting products for numerous companies within the United States and abroad. The third artifact that Snapchat has created is live event streaming. Just like the two artifacts before this is yet another way that Snapchat is becoming a much more united app than before. The live Snapchat stories shows life in different cities and behind-the-scenes footage. Time Magazine called Live stories “… the company’s most unusual and compelling feature” claiming the stories have “turned Snapchat into a broadcast platform like NBC or YouTube. However, instead of being powered by Hollywood actors or up-and-coming online video stars, they are a kind of real-time, crowdsourced documentary made up on the fly by the app’s 100 million daily users” (Luckerson). On January 21, 2017, there was a live Snapchat story following the Women’s March on Washington. Women (and men) across the country sent in snaps to the live story that everyone in the country could see. Users utilize these stories to get their opinions and feelings towards topics out in the public eye. The live stories are not always political though. They mostly follow big events that affect the entire country. Other examples of live stories are the Super Bowl, World Series, holidays across the nation, etc. The audience of these stories are generally anyone who has the Snapchat app but more specifically any user who is interested in the topic that is being presented. On any given day
there are about 3 live stories following some important event around the country. These artifacts again show how Snapchat has grown as an app.
It is plain to see that Snapchat is an enormous pop culture icon that has a daily effect on its users. The three artifacts of Snapchat, advertisements, product promotion, and live event streaming influence pop culture every day.