Is it mind blowing to anybody else, how many social
media platforms there are floating around in the ominous World Wide Web? Maybe
ominous isn’t the right word to use, because social media truly can be an
incredible thing, but then again it is so vast. For me it is like the ocean
with deep dark unknowns that I probably will never know anything about. Today I
have decided to discuss two social media platforms. One I use daily and the
other I hardly know anything about, but have always wanted to explore.
Snapchat
Snapchat has become part of my everyday life, unfortunately
even my hourly life. I find myself checking it way more often than I would like
to admit. Snapchat is defined on
as being, “a
photo-sharing service with one key distinguishing feature: the photos you send
disappear.” It then goes on to discuss the feature of a screenshot and
how you can capture a picture if you are the receiver, but the sender is
automatically informed. The main focus of snapchat that I want to focus on is
the limited time allotted to capture something, and that it then disappears
from the recipient’s device. I will later contrast this with the second
platform I will be discussing, Vine. Snapchat allows its user to take pictures
or video clips that can last anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. This ingenious
service, to me just brings texting to life. I find that I “snap” my close
friends and family far more than I text them anymore. For me this is because I can
actually see the person I am talking to and I feel that I really am engaging in
a conversation with them. The article goes on to call snapchat a form of “ephemeral
communication” or just a brief communication. They use this term because of the
short time the image or video can be seen, but are the effects of such
communication really just brief? Or do we feel a deeper connection to those we
are communicating with, because we can actually see them? This by no means even
compares to face to face contact, but it’s just a little food for thought.
Vine
According to
as of January 2016 Vine ranks as the 10th
most popular social media platform with 42,000,000 monthly visitors. I was
actually really surprised by this statistic, especially since Snapchat didn’t
even end up in the top 15. I know that from my experience, Vine was a huge
thing when I was in high school. I don’t hear too much about it anymore, but I don’t
know if that’s just because we all grew up and moved on, or because it’s
becoming outdated. As I said before, I know what vine is, but I have never been
a big user myself.
is a site designated to inform parents about what
social media sites their children may be using and what exactly they are using.
Vine is a platform where six second videos can be posted to an individual’s
profile for anyone to see. This differs from snapchat in time and the number of
people who can see it. This is also dependent on profile privacy settings, but
are those settings actually legitimate anyway? Vine is similar to Snapchat in
the fact that the post is at the publisher’s discretion and unfortunately nearly
anything can be posted. In my personal opinion I do believe that vine has more
overall mature content, whereas Snapchat is really just dependent on the sender
and receiver.
Although these tools can be used for communications
and creative expression, there are risks that can come from any social media
site. So always be cautious with what you are sending, receiving and looking into.
Let’s make the World Wide Web a little less creepy and a little more creative.
Your article was interesting to me because I have never used Snapchat or Vine. It was interesting to read about the differences in the two, and also the similarities. I know my kids use Snapchat quite a bit and have fun with it. I am learning a lot about social media platforms in this class and may get brave enough to venture out of my comfort zone and try Snapchat. Boy, wouldn't my kids be surprised to get a pic from me?
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