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Solomon Dixon
Stanley Kustesky
UNIV 111/ MWF 1-1:50pm
December 1, 2014
Critical Analysis of Social Media Applications
In the paper prior to this one I talked about several social media applications that were
recently made. Now, they have all been up and running for a good amount of time. Enough time
to talk about some things that are going well and some things that aren’t as pleasing to
consumers. The social media applications Tumblr, Twitter, and Snapchat all have advantages
and disadvantages to their functionality as well as other aspects of their individual purposes.
Snapchat, the mobile app that allows users to capture videos and pictures that selfdestruct after a few seconds, has grown tremendously over a short period of time. Evan Spiegel’s
small idea for a college final project has, in the course of 4 years, exploded in to a multi-million
dollar company. Since the applications rapid rise to popularity and fame, Spiegel and his team
have introduced a massive amount of new features to the application. After snapping a silly
picture or video of yourself you could simply send it to your friend and be done with it.
However, since the adding of features you can do so much more. Now, when you snap a selfie
the fun doesn’t end there! With the doodle function you can draw whatever you heart desires in
any color. If you’re not feeling like Picasso that day then you can simply swipe right on your
picture and add filters to your photo giving it different tones and textures. Snapchat even
collaborated with the weather channel app so users can put the temperature on pictures. Although
this last feature has to be the biggest game changer for Snapchat by far called the ‘Snapchat
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Story’. ”Snapchat Stories allows users the option to string together pictures and videos taken
throughout the day. Similar to other social media sites (particularly Facebook’s timeline), this
“slideshow” is public for all Snapchat friends. But, unlike its rivals, Snapchat’s picture/video
chain feature only lasts for 24 hours–thus maintaining Snapchat’s vision of sharing media
temporarily” (Grossman). This one feature is what has been assumed to make the rate of
Snapchat views from 500,000 to 1 billion a day.
Now, all of these of these features have given the application a pretty good reputation and
have grown the whole Snapchat community as a whole. But there are still some problems that
have been around since the applications initial birth and new ones that have risen since recent
updates. In recent updates, Snapchat has allowed users to share pictures from their photo
galleries. This doesn’t seem like a big deal until you look at Snapchat’s initial goal of “sharing
moments in real-time” (Dutton). This not only shows that Snapchat is straying from its original
goal, but it also shows that its becoming more like the other social media applications that it was
once trying to stand out from. Another problem that has not been addressed or solved to any
degree is the issue of Snapchat being used for sexting. This is a serious issue due to the fact that
“Snapchat attracts a wide range of ages that could become victim to these explicit photos”
(Poltash).
Tumblr is yet another website that has been a dominant force in social media for
sometime now. The “micro-blogging” site allows users to post multimedia and other content to a
short-form blog and is currently home to more than 218 million blogs and is among the top 15
websites in the United States of America. Tumblr has released a series of Tumblr applications for
iOS, Windows, and android expanding the website’s availability to users around the world. This
was an excellent choice by David Karp because it shows us that Tumblr hasn’t strayed from its
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initial goal of allowing its users to “Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your
browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be” (Karp). A critical piece of the
success behind Tumblr is its simplicity. Compared to platforms like WordPress, Tumblr is dead
simple. It’s visually appealing, easy to set up and customize, and you can start posting within
minutes. Tumblr attracts a massive audience of loyal users and they know it. In the 2008 Tumblr
started picking up and gaining its fan base so much that they knew that companies and small
businesses would want to use the site as a platform to obtain recognition and costumers. Being
extremely witty at the right time Tumblr capitalized on this and made an individual sign up page
for brands. This sign up page is similar to the regular user sign up page but on this individual
page there is tons of content that help the business look at Tumblr in a new light and makes it
clear to them how to market themselves on this social media platform. The creation of this
exclusive sign up page enlarged the user count tremendously and has allowed small business and
huge companies like Lays and Pepsi to soar to new heights, by giving them a stage to be more
interactive with their audiences.
Tumblr has done wonders over the years, but also has had some trouble with things on its
site and application that have to be brought up for the sake of criticism. When Tumblr released
its application for Windows, Apple, and Android devices there were multiple complications with
the applications functionality. The application ended up being very hard to adjust to because of
the all of the bugs that made the application nearly impossible to search for, post, or reblog any
content. This was a major fallback because instead of making Tumblr’s ease of usability status
accessible on-the-go, it ultimately turned users away bringing other Tumblr projects in the
making to a screeching halt. Tumblr’s tech team focused all of their attention on making this app
everything it was originally thought out to be. After about 2 months Tumblr released an update
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for all platforms that seemed to fix a multitude of the errors and flaws the initial software seemed
to have. The application was faster than it ever was beforehand, and the overall user experience
was enhanced due the return of Tumblr’s original simple but appealing structure. Another
downfall Tumblr has had in the past is the availability of explicit content. Tumblr users were
given this freedom to make a blog out of whatever they took interest in. Most users made
outstandingly creative blogs the spread their talent and a positive message through the grapevine.
Other users went in the exact opposite direction and made blogs promoting self-harm and
suicide. These types of blogs were infamous and unfortunately resulted in the suicide of many
teenage Tumblr users. Tumblr took immediate action on this terrible problem and banned all of
these toxic blogs. They even dedicated a part of the company to helping people deal with suicidal
thoughts and self-harm providing the contact for the suicide hotline and many more services.
In conclusion, Tumblr’s pros outweigh the cons meaning that this social media device is
a definitely a fantastic choice for anybody looking to create a blog, small business, or a strong
online presence in general. Tumblr’s simple but appealing structure enhances overall user
experience and makes being a part of Tumblr a breeze and with the application version you can
take it virtually anywhere. Although Tumblr has had some setbacks, the staff has managed to
take control of all of them and make the company bounce back stronger than it was in the first
place. Evan Spiegel’s small idea for a college final project, Snapchat, has taken the social media
world by storm and people are welcoming the application with umbrellas. Snapchat hasn’t run
into any major problems thus far that have made the company seem harmful, besides sexting.
The company’s user count is rising by the day and ideas for new features are always being
introduced keeping their users happy with new toys to play around with. Snapchat is still one of
the newer social media applications and has a bright future ahead of itself.
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Citations Page
1.
Grossman, Jackie. "What Are Snapchat Stories?" Information Space What Are
Snapchat Stories Comments. 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
<http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2013/10/10/what-are-snapchat-stories/>.
2.
Poltash, Nicole A. "SNAPCHAT AND SEXTING: A SNAPSHOT OF BARING
YOUR BARE ESSENTIALS." ARTICLE: SNAPCHAT AND SEXTING: A
SNAPSHOT OF BARING YOUR BARE ESSENTIALS. 2013 T.C. Williams School of
Law University of Richmond, Spring 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
3.
Dutton, Chandler. "The Pros and Cons of the Snapchat Update." National Ave RSS.
National Ave., 9 May 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
<http://nationalave.com/2014/05/09/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-snapchat-update/>.
4.
Karp, David. "Tumblr." About. Tumblr, Inc., 2 Dec. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
< https://www.tumblr.com/about>.