I love amusing social media sites as much as the next Gen-Y. I have them all and use them daily. One day, I see someone’s tweet about getting a Snapchat and how everyone should go follow them. Being the social media junkie that I am, I headed straight for the app store!
Downloader beware! This will increase your stress, frustration, and possible alcohol intake.
Here’s my first issue: Snapchat asked for my phone number. Any app that immediately asks for my phone number, I’m going to be skeptical of. I get they need to verify that I’m an “actual person” but, there are so many other ways to prove that – ask me a math question, have me identify 6 random letters and numbers, send me an email… No other app asks for this. Unless they’re planning to call and wish me happy birthday once a year, don’t ask for my number. But nonetheless, I continued forward.
Now, I’m an educated, twenty something with a Bachelors degree from a respectable college and grew up with the boom of social media, but for the love of God I cannot figure this app out. Is Snapchat really that complicated or am I seriously getting older? I feel like one of those parents trying to figure Facebook out.
There’s something like 200 million active users on Snapchat. There are articles all over the internet from Wall Street Journal to Forbes about how great this app is. It even surpassed Instagram and Tumblr as the fastest-growing social app. And every time I open it, I end up flustered and punching random symbols that I don’t even know what they mean. Then I find I have a message from Snapchat! It’s the valued instructions on how to use the app. But after I watch the small video, it disappears! It’s like one of those secret agent messages that self destructs – just like in Inspector Gadget! Such important instructions on how to use the app appear and vanish right before your eyes. It literally sets you up for failure from the get-go.
Regardless of the fact that I can’t navigate this damn thing, isn’t the point of social media to post your hilarious pictures, crazy and inspiring group outings, and give updates on your personal life for the entire internet to see? If the picture disappears after a few seconds, I just don’t see the value in that. If I like a picture, I’m going to want to see it again. So why are they deleting? Supposedly, there’s a second app you can download to save the pictures. But that’s valued MB space for my phone… I can’t make that kind of commitment.
If this is the direction social media apps are headed in, I’m out. I’ll keep posting pictures of my dog on Instagram and continue to live a happy and less complicated life thank you very much.
