Trends, innovations, and ideas spread like wildfire through a population through the Diffusion Theory. The type of population that tends to have the speediest growth in terms of new trends and transformations would be the youth. Social media, schools, and universities are breeding grounds for trends and news to spread and what is deemed "cool" or not. Growing up in the early to mid 2000s, I have seen such growth with technology and social media over time. An innovation that caught on instantly and spread like wildfire would be the app Snapchat. Although writing about a social media app is cliche, this particular app seems like a good choice for me to write about because I grew up watching its growth and societal effect.
Snapchat is a social media and communication app where people can send momentary messages and create 24 hour long posts that delete when their time limit is up. It is not only a way to keep your peers updated about what you're doing in the moment, but allows for quick conversation hat doesn't take up storage for saving the thread. Back in 2011 when Snapchat was invented, photos could only be viewed once for ten seconds each. There was no saving, replaying, or sharing other people's content. It was a witty way to say "here I am right now."
(old snapchat logo)
People took to Snapchat as soon as it was released and was primarily used by high school students for intimate reasons. I remember my sister did not let me download it because the app wasn't so much social as it was a secret way to communicate with no strings attached. People took it less seriously than competitor apps like Instagram because there is no trace left behind of what was posted or shared- whether it be embarrassing, funny, serious, or sad. People had no shame in what they posted because they knew it would disappear, therefore, it was also unfortunately used for cyberbullying as well. As time went on, Snapchat added more features to its app making it more attractive to other age groups. Filters, sound effects, speed up/slown down/reverse options for videos, location sharing, and streaks were all updates made by 2015, and by 2016, Snapchat had over 75 million users. Now, Snapchat has ways to watch the news, monitor celebrities, contact friends, and so much more.
So what made Snapchat so attractive? The text/ photo or video combination was a new form of communication. People could see and hear your face or where you were while reading the caption you put over it all at the same time. Rather then having a social media post that is overly edited, Snapchat is a more honest and organic way to reach friends. People now use Snapchat to text and call people instead of imessage or SMS text message them because they can do so without service- only WiFi is needed. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Afterall, Snapchat is a free way to communicate and you do not have to pay for minutes used. There are negatives, however. Because Snapchat deletes chats and photos almost instantly and forever, people in relationships fear the app is a way their partner can practice infedelity since they cannot prove who was texted or not. The disappearing photos and call history means anyone can send anything they so choose at any time. Just like any other social media, it is also used for people to try and prove they have a life by posting "interesting" or "fun" things they could be doing that makes their friends feel left out. Looking at distorted and heavily filtered images can also affect people by promoting insecurities and a fake lifestyle. Still, people find it to be one of the less toxic social media apps and continue to use it daily.
This technology was adopted because back in 2011 there was a very limited amount of social media usage. Apps like Instagram and Twitter were just emerging, and we were all learning together the new ways to connect when we were apart. I love Snapchat and still use it to this day- with my location off of course. You can also control who can view and who cannot view your content and who is in your strict friends list. I believe Diffusion Theory worked well with Snapchat because of its rapid growth and continued popularity over the past ten years.
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