How do you keep in touch with people? Obviously you can call them, or maybe send them a text...but are there other platforms you use to communicate?
Especially over the last year and a half, people have continued to find creative ways to keep in touch. Naturally, Zoom comes to minds (as well as the confusion in how it surpassed Skype in adoption and functionality, when Skype was basically primed to fill this communication gap for the past decade+).
But on a smaller scale, what other apps might we use to communicate daily? Of course there are tweets, Facebook comments, and Instagram direct messages. I never entirely understood why Facebook Messenger branched off to be its own app; potentially it was to compete with other messenger apps, but I have not heard of any large-scale adoption in my personal experiences with it. What I do hear a lot of, especially at work, is WhatsApp. However, while it is in use here, it seems to be more popular internationally (even the coworkers I know you use it have friends and family in other countries, and it seems like an easy and affordable way to keep in touch).
One app that has managed to somehow stay relevant and useful is Snapchat. I admittedly don't use it too often, but I noticed that incorporating news and lifestyle reels was a draw for a long time. Additionally, it can still be a fun way to communicate by picture and brief text -- and if two people are sending silly, unimportant content, the photo/text expiration feature can help by de-cluttering the individuals' phone storage.
-Ello (he/him/his)
Hi Ello, I also think its kind of strange that Facebook messenger took on a life of its own?! But to your point I used snapchat all the time during the past few years during the pandemic and the app itself has evolved drastically, especially with its features of being able to subscribe to news reels, tabloids and even watch snips of TV shows like SNL. Some people think Snapchat is kind of dying out but I am still a daily user.
ReplyDeleteHey Erica, thanks for sharing! I feel like snapchat has definitely gained momentum with "younger" people...I'm in my 30s, but a lot of the news reels seem geared toward the interests of high schoolers, or at least a demogarphic slightly younger than me (with tiktok perosnalities they'd follow, etc). I wonder what they could do to make it appeal to an older audience.
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