Demographics of Snapchat

Social networking sites have begun to take over our society completely. We've gone from interaction that was mainly physical and face-to-face, to interaction that takes place by the means of technology. What are social networking sites exactly? They're designed to offer modes of self presentation and sociability. They are online platforms that intersect people, technology and practice. One social networking platform that I found interesting in particular is Snapchat.

Snapchat was launched in September of 2011. It was originally designed to send people nude pictures as the maximum length someone can see the picture you send is 10 seconds. However, Snapchat has grown into more of a social app than originally. Below, I attached an article that discusses the demographics of Snapchat and how it became the global phenomenon that it has.

Business Insider-Snapchat

This article mentions how Snapchat has grown to achieve a top-three rank in the iPhone app store in some of the wealthiest consumer markets. Since it's launch, teens have dominated the demographics. The majority of users of Snapchat are female aged 13-25 years old. Majority of users use Snapchat to communicate with their friends and family in a more easy, quicker way. However, there are a few more reasons that Snapchat has developed as much as it has.

The app, starting out like I mentioned before, as merely a (nude) photo app, has added a lot of dimensions to it. First, Snapchat added the feature of "My Story" to it. This feature allows people to post pictures and videos to their personal story and people can view it as much as they want to, for the next 24 hours, until the story expires and is permanently deleted. Along with the "My Story" feature of Snapchat, Snapchat has recently incorporated businesses into their app. They have begun to partner with certain businesses as a way for that particular business to market themselves. These businesses/corporation/networks, such as Cosmopolitan, Comedy Central, CNN, People, Food Network, Yahoo, EPSN, etc., have "stories" that are added everyday with the latest news and updates from that specific corporation.

So, the question I wanted to further discuss is are we, as a society, forever stuck in this technological way of communication? Do you think our technological footprints will just continue to flourish or will we run out of ideas?

In my personal opinion, I think that we are going to continue the pattern that we're already following. In fact, I believe that technology will prosper so much that it will completely take over. It already has in some sense. But I think that it's important at the same time, to think about where were headed. We really have no idea what else could possibly be created and what the next trend/fad will be. But it's important to consider the future and educate yourself. With the track that we're on now, I don't think that we'll ever run out of ideas. We are innovators. We want newer, bigger, better things and we keep getting them thus far. So why would, what has considered to be successful, ever stop?

Above The Influence

Lately on television I have been noticing a lot of public service announcements that are centered around drug use. The goal of a public service announcement (PSA), is to raise awareness or change behaviors and attitudes on a social issue. The PSA that you can see below is an ad created by Above The Influence, which is an organization created to bring attention to drug use and educate the public on the harm that can come from doing drugs. It says, "Kill yourself. Or, don't smoke meth." Below that, it goes on to list some of the many side effects commonly seen among drug users, and in particular, meth users.

Some of the other ads and commercials that have been done by Above The Influence are extremely graphic and disturbing, so much so that it can make the public feel almost uncomfortable. However, this PSA does a good job of illustrating how drugs, specifically meth, can do serious harm to your body and essentially destroy the life you've built. Below, I've posted another example of an anti-drug PSA created by Above The Influence. 

This ad is clearly a little less intense than the previous one, but it has the same general message for the public. In the outer ring that surrounds the arrow, some of the text reads "stress", "confusion", "seek help", etc. It's generally relaying to the public that these are all possible outcome affiliated with drug use. 

Above The Influence has tons of these ads as their whole campaign revolves around reducing the amount of drug use within our society, and around the world. By relaying this information to the public through the use of advertisements and commercials, they establish public relations. Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. 

Above The Influence is giving the public useful information about the harmful effects drugs have on you physically, mentally and emotionally. By doing this, the public is building a respectful relationship with Above The Influence and is able to gain more useful knowledge about drug use for themselves, friends or family. 

So, the question is, how do we become more aware of the benefits public service announcements can provide?

Be more aware of them in general. PSA's are seriously everywhere. After I started thinking about them more in depth, the more I started noticing them. Drugs are a very serious issue, and are way more common than a lot of people think they'd be. Many people are naive of the harm that drugs cause, but PSA's help educate the public about these kinds of issues. It's also important that when you see a PSA, to look into it, and educate yourself about the issue at front. Do some research on why the PSA was created and how many people see the PSA daily and potentially how many lives these public service announcements change or save. Public service announcements have always seemed sort of dramatic to me, but lately, I noticed how beneficial and informational they can really be. 

Double Satire

In today's society, a lot of what we as consumers see in the media are different forms of satire. There are a vast amount of televisions shows that have satire embedded in their foundation. For example, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, etc. All of these shows comprise of satirical jokes and essentially rely on them to constitute the principal or dominant theme of the shows. Satire is literary/mediated work that diminishes or derogates a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation. The two I am going to address specifically, are horatian satire and juvenalian satire. These two types of satire are very different from each other. 

The first type of satire, horatian, is typically more gentle, urbane, and aims to correct through gentle, sympathetic laughter. One of the first topics that I thought related to horatian satire is Miley Cyrus. Miley has been under extreme observation lately, or was more so in the previous year, when her imaged changed from charming, innocent Disney actress to a wild, sexual, pop artist. Below, I have an example of horatian satire directed toward Miley Cyrus. 

It is clear within this example of satire that the goal is to make fun of Miley's dancing and sexualization of herself at the 2013 VMA awards show. During this show, she exposed her new image to the world. She wore little to nothing, danced provocatively, and changed the way the entire world saw her as a singer/actress. This example is funny and isn't necessarily harmful. It's illustrating how majority of the public felt after watching her perform two years ago at the VMA's. 

I posted another example of horatian satire below so you can further grasp the idea of it. 

 In this example, the author is poking fun at those who believe biking is more financially efficient than driving. The comic explains that while the biker depicted thinks he's saving much more money by not buying gas, he's actually spending what he would have spent on gas on bike tires and bike accessories. This is an innocent and gentle way of illustrating the contradiction or argument that can occur between bikers and drivers.

On a different note, however, juvenalian satire aims to do the opposite of horatian satire. Juvenalian satire is bitter, biting, has an angry contempt, and moral indignation. Juvenalian satire can be seen within a lot of different contexts. One common context is politics. There are many comics that have biting messages about past/current presidents. Another context is race. Below, I have an example of juvenalian racial satire.


This example of juvenalian satire illustrates a black man being lynched and pulling the "race card". We often hear about these types of stories within the media when a black victim is accused of pulling the "race card" to justify something. By making satirical illustrations revolving around this sensitive topic, we're essentially covering up the underlying issue. People aren't focusing on what the real problem is when they accuse a black person of pulling the "race card". They're overlooking it entirely. This illustration was pretty bitter in that sense.

So the question is, how do you distinguish between horatian and juvenalian satire? And what should our reaction be when we witness biting satire?

It's mainly a personal decision. It's important that you, yourself, decide how to react. Some comics, like the examples I've included, are meant to make you smile and consider the topic further, while others are created out of pure distaste and aversion. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to let it affect you. And if you are affected in any way by the form of satire, talk about it. It's beneficial to think out loud. Talk to your friends about it, your parents, your roommates, etc. Discuss how it affected you and see if they feel the same way. It can become a learning experience by doing this. And not only a learning experience for you, but for those who you choose to share it with.