There is no snappy answer to the problems of Snapchat
PLUS 5 Trite THEN and NOW comparisons, a reactor to get excited about, THE phone mask video and lots (well a bit ) more
After a long Easter weekend of contemplation I decided to make a profound change to TechTonic. The Monday edition will drop “Morning” from its name because I rarely got it out for the morning. It will now be delivered at - checks watch for current time - 4 : 31 PM PDT.
EXPERIMENTAL RECIPES
MAIN COURSE - The strong case for Snapchat to change
While the FTC antitrust case against Meta for dominating the social networking market through its acquisitions (and then bad management of) of Instagram and WhatsApp proceeds, I thought I’d take a close look at the baby app in this market that has had an outsized impact, SnapChat.
Babies, or at least children and teenagers, are the target audience for this social platform. Consider some usage statistics:
Among UK teenagers aged 13-17 who use the internet, 71% use Snapchat every day, making it the most popular social media platform in this age group
60% of U.S. teens (ages 13–17) use Snapchat, according to Pew Research Center’s 2023 survey
Ofcom data shows that 17% of three- and four-year-olds in the UK used Snapchat in 2022
The last stat should raise a hackle or two. I also shivered but it is only 11 degrees Celsius here today. (For my American readers that is quite cold for spring). Jonathan Haidt - a social psychologist from NYU whose bestseller The Anxious Generation helped to greatly change for the better our modern school experience by eliminating smart phone use in the classroom - has set his sights on Snapchat.
This summary article explains how Snap (the parent company - kewl different name eh?) knew about the excesses of their app way back in 2017. There were also many documented internal dialogues on multiple product / user problems throughout the 2020s. But no significant changes were made to the core features of the application, although ‘safety and content moderation’ became a corporate focus.
Snap is also waging a PR campaign to change their image. Because creating illusion always is better than changing reality. Their corporate strategy appears to be: get ‘em, addict ‘em, don’t patrol, don’t improve, enact poor content oversight when people complain.
So what are these built-in features that cause problems, many of which originated in this innocuous looking little app. These are techniques I saw offered around 2010 in various courses on how to addict your users……I’m sorry, I mean the use of gamification and other enticing digital experiences to improve customer engagement. Specifically:
Content that disappears after a certain amount of time
Encouraging frequency Streaks
Regular and persistent Notifications
Quick Adds of “friends” function
Beauty enhancing filters and masks
Snap Map to geolocate friends
Somehow we are expecting children and young people to be able to handle these sophisticated digital lures that can easily be exploited by adult bad actors.
Let’s look at a Side Dish shall we: Instagram. It has basically copied all of these features (Stories anyone with its access to nifty image and video enhancing features and filters). Everyday on my literal 60 second look through my own Instagram account I see many of my contacts posting constantly to Stories, which is one of the least effective ways I can imagine for communication.
Let’s leave Insta-excesses for another time but needless to say there are many adults who are addicted, or at least spend far too much valuable life time there. Today I read a heartfelt quote by Urmila Menon in a Substack article: “Deleting Instagram wasn’t just about avoiding the hassle of passwords; it was about reclaiming my attention and rediscovering the joy of being present” (emphasis mine)
Let’s finish our main course shall we. I’m not going to list down all of the controversial and troubling Snapchat excesses. They are easy to find. Let me highlight a couple of quotes from this article that underscores where we are in 2025, after the supposed amelioration that Snap has undertaken.
“It’s devastating to learn that Snap receives over 10,000 reports of sextortion every month.”
And this.
“Unfortunately, this echoes our own analysis of police data, which found that where the platform was known, half of all child sexual abuse images offences took place on Snapchat.”
In an era where our children are not allowed to step three feet out of the house to see a blade of grass, we provide them with unfettered digital access instead to the horrors of the world. We need to force long-lasting and significant changes to Snapchat for young people.
Maybe we need to put our own Instagrams aside to be able to do so.
SECONDI - Five Trite THEN & NOW comparisons (reversed next week)
QUICKBYTE: Thorium mounts an old/new nuclear reactor saddle
China - a country announcing significant new technology seemingly weekly - reports the successful use of a new type of nuclear reactor, powered by thorium. In the early days of all things nuclear, the glorious 40s and 50s, this method of nuclear fission using molten salt was explored for use in bombers. Congress, for those of you old enough to remember that now non-functioning ex-legislative arm of the United States, cancelled this research in 1961. (Just think in the 2080s what scientific and medical research brought into being - likely by India then - will be based on studies cancelled by DOGE in 2025).
Thorium - which is 4 times more plentiful than uranium - is also difficult to be weaponized in a thermonuclear bomb. That should be a significant advantage. Another one is that it is already a liquid so there cannot be a meltdown. If things go awry evidently it runs like slow moving lava, easy to contain and control. This technique has one other significant advantage in that there is very little nuclear waste.
So where has it been? Well right now it is located in the Gobi desert, presumably because of the prolific access to salt not the relative isolation in case something went wrong. Hopefully this might spur more growth in this excellent source of energy.
EXTRA HELPING: New Product Redux
CLICK image to see the phone dropping on your face prevention machine in action
MENU MISTAKES
Trump really thinks he is God
An explanation for why they cancelled so many medical, scientific and technological research projects
The real way for how Trump can remain in power forever. Never-ending Groundhog Day for all American
Thanks everyone for reading. Any little crumb of feedback such as a Like, a message, or a comment is greatly appreciated.
I never fully understood the fact that millions of people especially within the age of 10 to 25 were literally building houses and eating and feeding off the addiction of Snapchat like it was their entire day. I found out about this statistics early January this year and I couldn't believe myself.... You might actually think Instagram is the worst but Snapchat is the absolute demon. I don't know how it got to that extent but it's actually there and no one is doing anything about it David. It's sad.
I voted and I saw that item on CNET of all places lol
Having worked in product design, I recognize every one of those 'engagement' tactics you listed - they're straight from the 2012 growth hacking playbook. What's sad is how Snap maintained these knowingly harmful features while cultivating a 'kewl' brand image.
Creating illusion always is better than changing reality.' That applies equally to beauty filters and corporate accountability theater. Maybe we need less 'streaks' and more streaks of common sense.
In other words David, we are doomed.