Why in the World do people use Snapchat?

I had dinner with my nephews the other night and the topic turned (as it usually does with Aunt Karen) to social media. Snapchat came up. I was interested to learn about the “Faceswaps” because I’ve seen some wacky Buzzfeed posts about those lately. I didn’t realize they are a Snapchat thing. They are pretty freaking hilarious.

creepy snapchat face swap

They remind me of the “gene machine” creepy face merge photo booth from Dave & Busters.

dave and busters gene machine

Here’s the primary reasonwhy the “young’uns” are using Snap Chat: “My parents are on Facebook, I don’t want to post anything there.”

And to my protests of “but snap chat disappears” my younger nephew responded:

“I don’t need to save my memories, because I’m not using it to communicate anything important.”

Part of me wonders if this is a phenomenon of the “participant trophy” generation? I’m competitive, I like to see how many “likes” and “shares” I can garner. But I confess that what I tend to post on Facebook is not very real…I tend to gloss over life’s daily disappointments and only post Glamour Shots.

My nephew uses Snapchat the way that my husband and I use text. To send casual comments or images that aren’t “important” enough for Facebook. When I asked how brands make money on Snapchat, my nephews showed me some interested “branded” filters. They both seemed to like the “Batman vs. Superman” filter. From what I could tell, branded filters are the best way to reach the snapchat audience, although there’s also local lists. And wouldn’t you know it, today I saw an article from Ad Age:

To Big Brands, From a Millennial: Snapchat Filters Are Where It\’s At Three Steps Companies Can Take to Sponsor Snapchat Filters

And now there’s even another platform that I hadn’t heard of, “Yik Yak” (I’m afraid to Google it since I hear it’s also a fave of child predators…)

Yik Yak is anonymous, so no one even knows it you who is posting. When I asked why this is appealing, my nephew responded “I like that it’s anonymous, there’s no pressure.” I confess I do see the appeal in those creepy Face Swaps, though.