Kate Size | Thursday 21st November 2013
The newest social sharing sensation, Snapchat is almost a permanent fixture on the home screen of my iPhone. On average I receive a Snapchat or “snappy” as it’s more endearingly referred to, 6 times a day. 
I wake up to witty Snapchats from my friends abroad about their adventures in London and I go to bed with a Snapchat from my housemate, who is in the next room.
It is currently one of the hottest forms of self-promoting communication, and it adds a new dimension – that of intrigue.
Users take a photo and send it to a (connected) Friend, who can view the photo for a maximum of ten seconds. After this time, it disappears forever. Never to be seen again.*
This is the beauty of Snapchat. Users can be crude, looking unkempt, improper, hilarious or polite and it all goes away without a trace of evidence. This has led to some interesting photos that I know my friends wouldn’t put up on Facebook, but they are happy for a 5 second view – if for nothing more than shock value.
The sender has the option to add a caption or draw anywhere on the screen. This makes for highly entertaining pictures. The sender also has the option to choose how long the photo can be seen – ranging from 1 to 10 seconds.
What I love about it too is that the Snapchat team have been savvy and outwitted those who thought they might like to take a screenshot of an image. If this happens, the sender is notified.
Snapchatting has become a new way to communicate. Living up to the saying ’A picture speaks a thousand words’, Snapchat has eliminated the need to string a sentence together. Forget “texting” – sending a snapchat has replaced this process. Images vary from a photo of 3 blocks of chocolate with the caption “geared for a night in” or for the more daring users, let’s just say that there are some interesting selfies in the Snapchat cyberspace.
Like Twitter, the characters per Snapchat are capped at 32 characters per picture sent. It is important to note that the level of interaction varies between age groups – the younger the user, the higher the interaction.
If you’re looking for a discreet way to show your wit, get on Snapchat!
* (Blog post hijack from Mum) Even though Snaps can’t be seen again by friends, ultimately, they’ve been shared on the internet, therefore they do still exist in cyberspace. Read here about a company that is charging US$300 to retrieve Snapchats.
