Here’s a 4:50 report that aired on NPR’s All Things Considered. Audio embedded below.
From a Text Summary:
On today’s All Things Considered, NPR’s Sami Yenigun talks to a roomful of teenagers to see who uses which for what these days. (The answer, like most involving tech or teens, is subject to change like the weather.)
When you need to illustrate a story about proliferating social-media platforms, it’s good to know that an enterprising stock photographer has probably thought about it already.
Some takeaways:
Facebook is for finding old friends, and maybe for arranging parties. (Unless they’re the kind of parties you don’t want the police knowing about. “Oftentimes, parties that are all over social media get busted by the cops really easily,” one 17-year-old tells Sami.)
Twitter is more for personal expression. “People be in their feelings on Twitter — they vent,” says Jamal Royster, 18.
Visual communication? It’s a different mode of connection. And as with text-based platforms, use cases vary among the teens Sami talked to.
Vine is where you publish (and watch) short video clips — seven seconds or so. People make all kinds of clever short films with the app. Check out Waka Flocka Elmo, a recent viral hit recommended by 17-year-old Jesse Aniebonam.
Instagram, a relative veteran in the pics-and-flicks category, is the go-to app when it comes to documenting your days and nights. “I Instagram everything,” says Grace Plihal, 18. “It’s kind of my way of showing myself to the world, I guess.”
Quick Note
The NPR report includes a mention of SnapChat.
While the article does mention that images and video self destruct after a certain amount of time there have been many reports in both the mainstream and tech press that the material can be accessed with little available after the image/video times out.
I was quoted in this recent School Library Journal article that discusses this and other issues relating to the app and how SnapChat can be used when teaching digital literacy.
— Gary
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