Snap What? Snap Who? Snap Where?

 

This week I decided to dip my big toe into an application I have never used, to test the waters if you will. That chosen app was Snapchat. I remember about four to six years ago it was all the rage for some reason, but I was never really interested. Perhaps it was due to my aversion to being photographed. All I remember is that there were a lot of filters. Anyway, enough of my trip down memory lane and let’s get into the meat of this. Snap chat is a media centric instant messaging application. The main idea is that whatever photo or video you send to another user by default will only be available for a short time, after which it will be completely inaccessible. Apparently, the temporality of it all is somehow supposed to stimulate a more natural flow of communication online.

I believe the part that was the most fun for me was the bitmoji customization. I felt like I was playing a light cutesy version of the Sims for a moment. The AR (augmented reality) features are very interesting. I knew there were a lot of filters, but I had no idea that there were so many. While I don’t like taking photos of myself; I can see myself using it to help me make content. Personally, I would make more use of the bitmojis. They would make it easy to make an avatar with variable poses and emotions that can be used for a VTuber account for example or for quick and easy content for other platforms. Perhaps I am getting old, but I am not encouraged to use this platform to communicate with anyone honestly; but rather just to use the bitmoji and the filters. It turns out that locally in my area that is pretty much what other people use it for also, as a creation tool rather than a messaging platform.

In short, I think Snapchat is good as a content creation tool. It is a good application with a bit of a learning curve. Also, from what I understand it gets updated ever-so-often so things might be a little different in the next few months, living up to its concept of temporality. All in all, it works well and does what it is supposed to.