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The Snapchat Network

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/mr-know-it-all-10/

In thinking about possible networks that surround me and influence my daily life, I immediately thought of snapchat. Snapchat is an app I use every day to showcase highlights of moments in my life. In particular, this article talks about Snapchat streaks. A Snapchat streak is the number of days you consecutively Snapchat a friend. Losing this streak often takes an emotional toll on both the participants, which is crazy once you think about how meaningless it really is. But, Snapchat created streaks to encourage you to use the app every day. They want you to give meaning to these “streaks” and how long they can go on for.

I soon realized there are multiple class principles reflected in this app. I think it would be very interesting to do a study on the network created by snapchat friends. I also feel that a Snapchat network would be slightly different compared to Instagram/Facebook networks because I personally think being friends on snapchat does not constitute a genuine friendship. There are a lot of people I have on my snapchat that I would not really consider friends in real life. Of course, the people that you have streaks with would be considered better friends compared to people you don’t have streaks with. In network terms, a streak would be considered a strong tie. Weak ties would be defined as just Snapchat friendship and the occasional view on your “my story” (a more pubic story that can be seen by any of your Snapchat friends). There are also so many Snapchat relationships in between: people that you have low snap streaks with, or people that you snapchat very often during a day but not for consecutive days. Categorizing these different types of relationships would be a fascinating study.

Additionally, it would be interesting to see how the “recommended friends” option on snapchat impacts the number of triadic closures. Snapchat has a section that lists a bunch of people who share mutual friends with you to add as friends. Learning about the frequency of successful suggestions and how they bring more and more people together would also be a great learning point.

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