TECH TUESDAY – Do you know what the new mobile trend is with teenagers in the US? Apps that don’t record everything that ever happened anywhere.
These kids – having grown up with photos of (shudder) everything they do posted on Facebook and, more recently, Instagram – are embracing photo sharing apps where the pics disappear after an amount of time designated by the sender
Specifically, I’m talking about Snapchat, an app launched with little noise in late 2011 that has begun taking high schools by storm.
With Snapchat, you can send a photo and designate a window of time between one and 10 seconds during which the photo will display before self-destructing. So, unless the receiver takes a screenshot (in which case the sender will be notified) that photo will be recorded only in the memory of whoever received it.
It’s as if these kids aspire to live in the moment, rather than having every single thing they do recorded as multimedia on the internet’s record books. Poor kids in Oregon can’t even brag on Facebook about pulling a drunken hit-and-run without being arrested anymore.
But the app has blown up recently, due to the phenomenon of users sending suggestive and/or downright naked selfpics to each other. The knowledge that a photo will only exist for a fleeting few seconds opens up a whole lot of exhibitionist instincts in hormonal young people.
This phenomenon, christened “sexting” by the media, is the current bane of worried parents around the US. It has spawned an endless stream of “What you need to know about Snapchat and sexting” articles on parenting blogs and magazines.
The guys behind Snapchat have played down sexy usage of the app, but one can’t help but notice the images of attractive girls they’ve used on their App Store page. The app was definitely designed with teens in mind. It even warranted a 12+ rating from Apple for “infrequent/mild sexual content or nudity.”
What percentage of photos sent with the app are actually “sexts” is currently the subject of heavy debate, but one thing is for sure: All the hullabaloo has increased Snapchat’s popularity to the point where it has become one of the most talked-about apps in Silicon Valley.
Facebook even came out with a clone called Poke, but their version has had limited success, probably because Snapchat is popular exactly because it’s not Facebook. In fact, the launch of Poke from Team Zuckerberg may have served to only boost the popularity of Snapchat, hilariously enough. Rumors now abound that Facebook may buy this irritating upstart rather than compete with it.
I reckon Snapchat will find its way onto the smartphones of Bangkok’s early adopting teens soon enough, and the results should be…interesting.
If planking was enough to elicit a reaction from the Ministry of Culture, I imagine a promiscuity-promoting, society-corroding “sexting” app could provoke an uproar.
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Tech Tuesday: Whereby Coconuts Bangkok explores the digital world through a local lens.
