In December of 2013, a new app was created that took texting and facetime and combined them. And the best part? It guaranteed that anything you sent would disappear in a matter of seconds. They called their app “Snapchat,” which was appropriate because of the way one’s photos could be seen then erased forever. Because of this, an age of new technological savvy young adults could get around the stigma that they, and more so the generation before them, had been taught—once on the Internet, always on the Internet.
It caught on like wildfire. According to Forbes magazine, “approximately 50 million people use snapchat.” And the app continues to stay to stay relevant. Their addition of Snap stories (where your pictures can be viewed unlimited amount of times over a period of 24 hours) has also sparked interest with users. Jessica Taylor, a twenty-four-year-old student at the University of Memphis, says that “Snapchat is my favorite app to use because it lets my friends that live back in Louisiana see what I’m doing in real time without having to call them on Facetime.” She closes with saying, “Not everyone wants to be on the Iphone bandwagon.”
Once Snapchat became more popular in 2015, they introduced the use of filters, pictures that could be placed over your own face or represent an area you were currently in when you took your picture. These started to become the new makeup. Instagrams and Facebooks were flooded with dog faces and flower children.
Lately, competitors have become aware of Snapchat’s growth and tried to create their own version in hopes to generate the same success. Instagram recently added a feature to their app,which allows users to add stories that can be viewed at the top of their followers’ screen, similarly to Snapchat. However, should Snapchat be worried about losing users? Jailenn Scott, a 20-year-old and sophomore at the University of Memphis, doesn’t think so. “Me personally, I think everyone sees Instagram stories as a lame copy… they should just stick to what they know,” Scott says. Snapchat has captured the millennial’s attention and their success rate seems to be growing with their ever changing filters.