Summer Smith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
somethingwithturquoise) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomtownies2018-10-04 09:40 am
somethingwithturquoise) wrote in fandomtownies2018-10-04 09:40 am
Entry tags:
Community Center Class: 21st Century Social Media, Thursday Evening [10/04].
The Summer at the front of the community center classroom that day seemed...distracted. Her fingers drummed a little on the desk behind her as she leaned on the front of it, like someone who wanted nothing more than to start pacing, but was putting a concentrated effort into not doing just that. Part of her had almost wanted to cancel class, but that would be dumb, because class could be a great distraction, even if temporary. And, really, she should probably maybe cut back on all the coffee today, but she wanted to stay awake and alert if she could help it and just pass the hell out from a mind-numbing crash later. It wasn't that all the dreams she'd been having about Morty lately were bad; they were actually really nice and sweet and almost made her want to hop a portal back home for a while. But they were weird, especially because things had never been that nice and sweet between her and her brother, and she'd never really had dreams like that before, but they were everywhere all of a sudden, ever since, it seemed, she went out and poked at some dumb stupid rock in the woods.
Logic told her that this was a very bad thing. Her heart, however, was telling her something very different, and she didn't know which to believe.
And so....
"Heeeey, everyone," Summer gave them a bit of a smile, eager to get started and to get her hands on her phone for some good old distraction and because she especially needed something to do with her hands right now. "So, we've almost gone through most of the different social media platforms popular out there right now, just a few more to touch up on and we're going to start navigating different ways to use them, deciphering the language, and other things like that, and I saved another one of my favorites toward the end, and that's Snapchat. You should know how to download apps pretty easily by now, so take a second to find it and download it if you haven't already, and if you have, it's the one with the icon of a ghost.
"Why a ghost? Well, the answer to that is part of what gives Snapchat its uniqueness, because I'm sure, by now, you're probably wondering exactly how this platform differs from the half dozen other one's we've gotten into, since they all basically do the same thing. It's a way of communicating and sharing content, usually visual, with your peers and friends and random strangers across the internet. But each one has its own...flavor, I guess, that makes it unique, though now that they've all started dabbling in similar features, it's mostly about the individual, what they use it for, and what sort of interface they find more intuitive and comfortable.
"But Snapchat had made its own mark right from the get-go by being difference in that it's relatively impermanent. Some old Greek dude said ages ago that 'the life unexamined is not worth living,' so you can imagine if that was totally a thing way back then before all of this technology, we here in the 21st century have taken that idea and ran with it to ridiculous levels. We post nearly every aspect of our mundane, boring lives, splattering it all over social media in the hopes that someone out there likes it and we find validation for our entire existence on this planet in how many likes we get. But that also means that the dumb shit we do when we're stupid, impressionable teenagers," yes, she was going to allow for a little self-depreciation there and point to herself for emphasis, "is pretty much out there for anyone to see for, basically, like, ever. Which can not only be embarrassing, but, for some people who might not want to be noticed," trying not to look at you too hard there, BDG, but she knew your hang-ups, she got them, "it can be an even bigger deal.
"That's where Snapchat comes in, developed with the idea that whatever content you post will disappear within a certain amount of time, lost to the digital ether. Of course, it's not that simple, and I'm pretty sure nothing can be completely scoured from the internet, but it would be a pretty involved process. Anything you post to Snapchat, called, obviously, a snap, will vanish after twenty four hours. You can also send snaps to specific users more privately, and those will likely disappear after they've been viewed, though you can save snaps that people send you. A few years ago, they added a Memories feature where you can go back and look through them like a photo album, including a My Eyes Only one that's locked with a pin for snaps that only you have access to."
And here she paused, giving a frank look over the class that went a bit wry rather quickly.
"If you aren't piecing together yet exactly why Snapchat gained an awful lot of popularity with teenagers and young adults, then I'm honestly a little proud of you and also wondering how that level of purity can even exist in this world. And allow me to ruin a little for you by pointing out that, yes, Snapchat is the 21st Century's answer to the quintessential question of 'Where can I send my nudes?'"
Sorry, not sorry, guys.
"It's not just for that, of course, but you know that's going to be a big part of it. Most people, though, are just posting snaps and videos of a good time out to try to make everyone else jealous, or posting funny selfies and vids of them goofing around with some of the fun and silly filters they've developed that'll give you a sparkly flower crown or puppy dog eyes and cat ears. There's stickers and emojis and things like that, too, as well as a Discover feature that lets you view content from snaps relevant to your interests or location, but there's totally a mode where you can disable the location bit, because that one's kind of new and some people find it a little intrusive and potentially dangerous, and they're not entirely wrong. The amount of information we freely give about ourselves over social media is sometimes seriously messed up.
"But," she added, "it also lets you do this."
Which meant the class was now getting treated to a snap of Summer over the projection screen, applying the cutest puppy dog filter to it, complete with showing off the hanging tongue when she opened her mouth.
"Any questions? I guess today, we're just going to play around with it a little, try to navigate through it and let me know if you need help figuring anything out. Definitely see what sort of content is out there to help you get a feel for Snapchat, and we're done. We'll probably skip class next week, too, since if I'm not mistaken, there's a school trip coming up."
Which she miiiiight be feeling a little raw about having to miss on account of not being a student anymore or real teacher, but that just served to motivate her to think of a class for next semester at the school, even if it would still be kind of weird, teaching people you previously invited to parties where you got smashed.
Logic told her that this was a very bad thing. Her heart, however, was telling her something very different, and she didn't know which to believe.
And so....
"Heeeey, everyone," Summer gave them a bit of a smile, eager to get started and to get her hands on her phone for some good old distraction and because she especially needed something to do with her hands right now. "So, we've almost gone through most of the different social media platforms popular out there right now, just a few more to touch up on and we're going to start navigating different ways to use them, deciphering the language, and other things like that, and I saved another one of my favorites toward the end, and that's Snapchat. You should know how to download apps pretty easily by now, so take a second to find it and download it if you haven't already, and if you have, it's the one with the icon of a ghost.
"Why a ghost? Well, the answer to that is part of what gives Snapchat its uniqueness, because I'm sure, by now, you're probably wondering exactly how this platform differs from the half dozen other one's we've gotten into, since they all basically do the same thing. It's a way of communicating and sharing content, usually visual, with your peers and friends and random strangers across the internet. But each one has its own...flavor, I guess, that makes it unique, though now that they've all started dabbling in similar features, it's mostly about the individual, what they use it for, and what sort of interface they find more intuitive and comfortable.
"But Snapchat had made its own mark right from the get-go by being difference in that it's relatively impermanent. Some old Greek dude said ages ago that 'the life unexamined is not worth living,' so you can imagine if that was totally a thing way back then before all of this technology, we here in the 21st century have taken that idea and ran with it to ridiculous levels. We post nearly every aspect of our mundane, boring lives, splattering it all over social media in the hopes that someone out there likes it and we find validation for our entire existence on this planet in how many likes we get. But that also means that the dumb shit we do when we're stupid, impressionable teenagers," yes, she was going to allow for a little self-depreciation there and point to herself for emphasis, "is pretty much out there for anyone to see for, basically, like, ever. Which can not only be embarrassing, but, for some people who might not want to be noticed," trying not to look at you too hard there, BDG, but she knew your hang-ups, she got them, "it can be an even bigger deal.
"That's where Snapchat comes in, developed with the idea that whatever content you post will disappear within a certain amount of time, lost to the digital ether. Of course, it's not that simple, and I'm pretty sure nothing can be completely scoured from the internet, but it would be a pretty involved process. Anything you post to Snapchat, called, obviously, a snap, will vanish after twenty four hours. You can also send snaps to specific users more privately, and those will likely disappear after they've been viewed, though you can save snaps that people send you. A few years ago, they added a Memories feature where you can go back and look through them like a photo album, including a My Eyes Only one that's locked with a pin for snaps that only you have access to."
And here she paused, giving a frank look over the class that went a bit wry rather quickly.
"If you aren't piecing together yet exactly why Snapchat gained an awful lot of popularity with teenagers and young adults, then I'm honestly a little proud of you and also wondering how that level of purity can even exist in this world. And allow me to ruin a little for you by pointing out that, yes, Snapchat is the 21st Century's answer to the quintessential question of 'Where can I send my nudes?'"
Sorry, not sorry, guys.
"It's not just for that, of course, but you know that's going to be a big part of it. Most people, though, are just posting snaps and videos of a good time out to try to make everyone else jealous, or posting funny selfies and vids of them goofing around with some of the fun and silly filters they've developed that'll give you a sparkly flower crown or puppy dog eyes and cat ears. There's stickers and emojis and things like that, too, as well as a Discover feature that lets you view content from snaps relevant to your interests or location, but there's totally a mode where you can disable the location bit, because that one's kind of new and some people find it a little intrusive and potentially dangerous, and they're not entirely wrong. The amount of information we freely give about ourselves over social media is sometimes seriously messed up.
"But," she added, "it also lets you do this."
Which meant the class was now getting treated to a snap of Summer over the projection screen, applying the cutest puppy dog filter to it, complete with showing off the hanging tongue when she opened her mouth.
"Any questions? I guess today, we're just going to play around with it a little, try to navigate through it and let me know if you need help figuring anything out. Definitely see what sort of content is out there to help you get a feel for Snapchat, and we're done. We'll probably skip class next week, too, since if I'm not mistaken, there's a school trip coming up."
Which she miiiiight be feeling a little raw about having to miss on account of not being a student anymore or real teacher, but that just served to motivate her to think of a class for next semester at the school, even if it would still be kind of weird, teaching people you previously invited to parties where you got smashed.
Sign In - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Re: Sign In - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Re: Sign In - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Listen to the Lecture - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Re: Listen to the Lecture - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
... That one was actually kind of intriguing, he had to admit, and now he was wondering if private Snapshat messages could be used for intelligence-gathering purposes, or clarifying tactics mid-mission without having to worry about comm channels being compromised.
Class Activity - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Talk to Summer - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
Though it did strike her as strange that she hadn't seen much from Ethan these days. Huh.
OOC - 21st Century Social Media, 10/04.
She's holding me technologically hostage.