“Identity is at the core of social media…[it’s] is everything I’ve ever done…but instant expression changed that because it says my identity is who I am right now. It says I’m the result of everything I ever done but I’m not the accumulation of all that stuff.”
Thoughts?
Phil says
Interesting piece Zach. I’m kind of wondering if Identity is at the core of social media and these social media platforms are what people use to communicate their identity, then how much (meta-) awareness is there that the expression of their identity may be limited by the affordances of those platforms? For example, if the tech headlines are to be believed, then there’s already lots of people (albeit mostly young) jumping from SnapChat to Yik Yak. Is this because of unique affordances offered by Yik Yak that young people have consciously identified as better for expressing identity than Snap Chat or is it due more to trendiness?
Zach Lonsinger says
Hey Phil, great to see you on here! Hmm, great points. Although Yik Yak is fairly new, I don’t see it staying around too long. It’s almost too anonymous. Snapchat allows kids to continue being friends with people they are “snapping” with, without sending permanent pictures. I’m a youth leader in a pretty large youth group (in the process of becoming an non-profit) and the most popular form of social media used is Snapchat, without any contest. With the rate of change prevalent in just about every area of study, how can one really know the true definition of anything anymore? It is expected that human knowledge will soon be doubled every 12 hours. That is just insane. What does that mean for our identity?
Phil says
Thanks for your take on Yik Yak; definitely helpful with putting in perspective 🙂
Brad Kozlek says
I feel social media becoming more ephemeral is following what is more natural to us. Communicating online is just part of life now. It is an augmented form of a human instinct. We didn’t have records of all social communications before the digital age, so the fact that we don’t have all the baggage following us around is just more natural. The popularity of snapchat shows they have tapped into something powerful with their focus on ephemerality.
Zach Lonsinger says
Funny you mention snapchat’s ephemeral take on social media. The Snapchat CEO actually just deleted ALL of his tweets, too, except for one. Some are saying that “this is a potential signal that Snapchat may be interested in messaging with a deeper focus on disappearing text over vanishing visuals.” Snapchat’s co-found also followed suit with this as well. Could Snapchat be shaping the future of social media more so than facebook is? Or has it already? Disappearing tweets?