3.28 Social Media and the Diffusion of Innovation

Social Media, predominantly Snapchat and Instagram, is a driving force in the world of Millennial's and Gen Z, or people born from about 1985 to 2010. The youth and future of the world have taken to these applications because of its immediacy, the content it offers, the realness of it, as well as the fact that it is an outlet for people to express themselves and let people who they cannot see everyday in their lives.

While facebook has fizzled out in regards to popularity among the younger generations, Snapchat and Instagram have thrived. Instagram allows its users to post pictures of whatever they please to express their interests, connect with others, and follow other accounts that cater to their interests, such as news outlets, clothing brands, "meme" pages, friends, etc. Snapachat offers real time communication, via sending "snaps", or quick selfies of yourself or a picture of whatever it is you want, with a caption written on the picture, or by the newer addition of texts. Snapchat partners with Bitmoji, a program which allows users to create their own avatar, which provides stickers you can use in your snaps or to send to friends. Your bitmoji is also used to show your location, if you choose, on "snapmap", which gives people access to know where their friends are, and to click around the map to see popular events that are going on that people have willingly posted about on a more public form, rather than just delivering the information to just their friends on the app.

                     


Instagram and Snapchat have their pros and cons, however. Regarding IG, unless your page is private and people must request to follow you, your page is totally open for anyone to view. Anyone at all can also send you direct messages, which can be clickbait or scams. If you do not follow the person, however, you may decline access to the message for security purposes. For snapchat, due to snap maps, anyone can see where you are, which can make people rather uncomfortable, but only if you choose to. Snapchat also is a limited app timewise. If you post on your "story", it is only available for 24 hours, then gone forever unless you save your snap to your camera roll.