How Snapchat Joined the Publics Good Graces

          

            One of the biggest modern day social media players, Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat, has announced that they will become a public company.  This mean shares in Snapchat will become available to investors.  The goal of an IPO (Initial Public Offering) is for businesses to raise capital, typically to expand their business.

            While browsing the internet, I happened upon an article on “The Economist” site titled, Snap’s IPO will be the largest in years, this attracted my attention as it was a headline on a major news site.  A passage I found especially interesting is as follows, “When Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, goes public at an expected valuation of $20bn-25bn—the IPO is expected in March—its market debut will be the most closely watched since Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, floated in 2014.” (The Economist).  This passage shows a significant change in the way that Snap, specifically their product Snapchat, is viewed in a mainstream light.

            When discussing new technology it is important to look at the work done by Nancy Baym.  Baym wrote an article, Making new media make sense, that discusses how new technology is viewed by the public when it is initially launched and how that changes over time, using the internet as example throughout the article.  Many of these views can be found today in how technology and technology companies are viewed by the public.

            “A 2009 study by market research firm Pear Analytics, for instance, created a category called “pointless babble” into which they placed 40 percent of twitter messages, echoing off heard complaints that mobile phones lead to empty conversation, sustained for the sake of interacting even when we have nothing to say.” (Baym). 

            This echoing based off of complaints is a phenomon that we find in Snapchat, which initial caught a bad reputation as it was viewed as an application for sexting.  This created the need for headlines such as the ones that follow below.

No, Snapchat Isn’t About Sexting, Says Cofounder Evan Spiegel

Generation App: Why Snapchat is more than just sexting

Snapchat: Sexting tool, or the next Instagram

These headlines show that the negative image of Snapchat was so intense, articles such as these had to be written to inform the public about why teens and other users were using Snapchat.  The publics initial impression was that this was an app for sexting, so its popularity with youth needed to explained in a way that shed this negative image.

Snapchat may have in part been able to shed this negative image due to a phenomenon discussed by Baym, that she calls domestication.  This is when, “As technologies are intergrated in everyday life, they come to be seen as offering a nuanced mix of both positive and negative implications.  Syntopian perspectives view new technologies as simulateously enabling and disabling.  The extremes may persist, but inbetween we use communication to negotiate a vast realm of detail, contradiction, and complexity.” (Baym).  This is something that can be seen with Snapchat.  While people may still use Snapchat for sexting, its services have found many other uses throughout its users day to day lives.

I agree with the points made in Bayms article, and I think Snapchat is a perfect example of this.  While new technology may initially be viewed in a negative light, if over time more complex uses of said technology are found, its public image can be greatly improved.  This is directly reflected in the tone and types of article found about the technology in mass media.

Baym, Nancy K. "Making New Media Make Sense." Personal Connections in the Digital Age. 

Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010. 22-49. Print.

"Snap's IPO Will Be the Largest in Years." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 04 Feb. 2017. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.

Gallagher, Billy. "No, Snapchat Isn’t About Sexting, Says Co-Founder Evan Spiegel." TechCrunch. TechCrunch, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.

 "Generation App: Why Snapchat Is More than Just Sexting." GeekWire. N.p., 17 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.

Gross, Doug. "Snapchat: Sexting Tool, or the next Instagram?" CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.