During our in-class discussions, we touched on
the fact that social media is extremely prevalent in our day-to-day lives.
Popular platforms include: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Instagram.
But how well do we know these platforms?
Jessi Hempel, a senior writer at WIRED and a former writer at Fortune, discusses how Snapchat's new crowd-sourced Map feature is replacing
written language for things we rely on words to express. In her
article,
https://www.wired.com/story/it-took-a-natural-disaster-for-me-to-understand-snap-map/,
she describes how the Snap Map feature is effecting how viewers perceive the
news around them.
The Snap Map feature has been available to users for just
over two months, and it allows users to view a map with images and video clips
in real time from anywhere they are being posted. Early reviews for the Snap Map
feature have not been so good because some believe that this feature violates
the privacy of its users. This is because the Snap Map feature tracks your
current location and allows your followers to see exactly where you are (when
you are using the app). Some saw this as a fun way to connect with friends, but
some saw this as creepy. Especially for Snapchat's younger users who do not
fully understand the implications of technology, the feature is believed to
have added a "stalker factor" to the Snapchat application. (To learn
how to take off this feature, you can visit https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-turn-off-snapchat-snap-maps/).
On the other hand, Hempel realized that the Snap Maps feature
is an important communication shift that allows its users to collectively
create a story about an experience/event going on. Instead of hearing about an
event going on through the news (i.e. news article or news videos that rely
heavily on facts), Snap Map allows users to convey a wide range of emotions that
let them communicate how they are thinking, feeling, and interacting with the
world around them.
Hempel realized the potential of Snap Map when educating
herself about Hurricane Irma, a category 4 hurricane that stretches more than
650 miles from east to west. In her article, she stated, "Of all the ways
to watch the flood waters rise in Houston last week, the most compelling was
through Snap's new crowd-sourced Map feature." The real time user videos
that were posted regarding the hurricane made her feel as if she was there
experiencing the disaster herself. As she watched different strings of snaps
from different geographic locations, she was able to see where exactly the
hurricane was hitting. From this information, Hempel knew if her home would be impacted from the path of the disaster and even if her family in different parts of the U.S. would be impacted. In addition, while she was searching multiple geographic
locations, she came across an Eid al-Adha celebration in Saudi Arabia. This
feature allowed her to view different cultures (cultural celebrations), which
in turn, educated her about customs in different parts of the world.
Link to article: https://www.wired.com/story/it-took-a-natural-disaster-for-me-to-understand-snap-map/
(Written by Jessi Hempel on September 6th,
2017)
Questions: (1) Hempel believes that Snap Map is an evolved
version of news that allows emotion to be evoked from their users. Do you agree
with Hempel? (2) Do the benefits of SnapMap outweigh the costs? In other words,
is having real-time experiences provided by users more important than the
privacy issues Snap Map comes with? (3)
About a year ago, Instagram shut down their version of Maps because their users
did not embrace this feature. Do you think SnapMap will follow in Instagram's
footsteps? If yes, explain. If no, do you think other social media platforms
will try to come out with features similar to Snap Map? Think about Snapchat's
story feature and the emergence of Facebook and Instagram stories. (4) How can
Snapchat inform their users about the benefits of Snap Map? (5) How can Snapchat
fix their privacy issues?
1) I think Snap Map does allow emotions to be evoked from users, so I do agree with Hempel. For me, I'd feel super bad if I saw my friends were somewhere without me and didn't invite me.
ReplyDelete2) I'm hung up on this question of whether or not Snap Map has more benefits or drawbacks. I see benefits of educating yourself on where friends and family are and it is super useful during disasters to stay updated on information and whereabouts of your loved ones. However, I do see the drawback of the potential misuse of Snap Map in terms of stalking people. So for now, I'll say that having real-time experiences through Snap Map outweighs privacy concerns until some bad instances occur in which the feature can be scaled back or reworked from there.
3) I think Snap Map will not follow in Instagram's footsteps because Snap Map is primarily based around being real time so I don't see it getting shut down for now.
4) Snapchat in a way has already informed users about the benefits of Snap Map because I remember when Snap Map first came out over the summer, Snapchat pushed out a short, informational video on how to use it and its benefits. However, I personally did not want to use it and still don't to this day.
5) Snapchat can fix their privacy issues by continuing to allow personalization of privacy options. The more options people have for their privacy, the better off they will feel in terms of their control over their personal information.