Old Prof, New Tricks: Snapchat FTW

I might be just about the only person in Toronto who did these two specific things last week:  (1) I subscribed to The Globe and Mail in print (this includes digital access) and (2) I started Snapchatting.

I Like Reading on Paper

The next federal election is also the longest in modern times. (For a tight summary of the details read this.) Whatever the consequences, I count it as a positive that heaps of election coverage in the media will contribute to active political discourse. I already read a lot of non-fiction, but mostly on screens nowadays, so for during this campaign I’ll give my eyes a rest by reading from paper instead. (In case you’re wonder why I subscribed to the Globe, it’s because I already get the National Post and Toronto Star in print for free at work!) Besides, I found something else to do with my phone . . . 

Snap to It

If you know Snapchat as something that occupies your children’s time and you think that it’s completely stupid – then you might be right. To demystify:  Snapchat is a free app that sends self-destructing picture and video messages (snaps) to your friends. You can label your snaps with text that’s no longer than 33 characters (and you thought Twitter’s 140 characters was short!). That’s just for starters, you can also draw free hand (it’s more like “free finger”) as well as add giant emojis (stickers)! An alternative to snapping your friends directly is snapping to your “story”, which shows everyone who’s interested to see snippets of what you’ve been up to for the past 24 hours. Stupid as it may be, Snapchat offers something new – temporary social media – unlike Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where digital content is permanent. I’m old enough to think that (almost) everything to do with selfies is unbecoming, but I’m much more inclined to participate in this aspect of modern culture when I know the images will disappear shortly. To be sure, snaps are not perfectly ephemeral since they can be screen-captured or photographed with another device. This could be creepy for some people, but I’d be flattered if anyone cared to save my cheesy snaps!