Editor’s note: Marianne Hynd is the vice president of operations at Ann Michaels and Associates, Naperville, Ill. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title. “Is self-destructing content the new trend?”
There seems to be a new trend starting in social media. It may have started with Snapchat, but maybe not. It could simply be the fact that, years after social media really took off, people are thinking through the implications of social sites and the content they post.
First came Snapchat – the social application that allows people to send images or “snaps” to their friends with messages that disappear within a short period of time (typically 10 seconds). When this first hit the scene, there was speculation that those images really didn’t disappear forever into some abyss and were certainly held somewhere. At the same time, concerns were raised surrounding the group this was most attractive to – teens who don’t fully grasp the concept of social activity.
More recently, Facebook has jumped on this bandwagon with two new features – the first is Slingshot – or as I call it, Snapchat on crack. It could be Facebook’s attempt to either, 1) be the “be all, end all” of social sites, trying to include every feature of every other social site possible or 2) get the younger age demographic back to Facebook. At any rate, this app is much like Snapchat, except that it allows users to send to multiple people at once.
Facebook’s second feature has been tested by a small portion of users. It will let you schedule a time for what you post to be deleted. It looks like you will be able to set a post to be deleted within one to seven days, according to an article on this subject.
What’s with all of the new apps, programs and social sites eager to offer deletion of what’s posted on social sites?
This is purely speculation, but I think a few things are coming into play:
1. Social sites are up against public scrutiny over privacy settings. This becomes more prominent as we get further into social media usage. Offering ways to “make content disappear” may be an attempt for social sites to give a sense of security to users and encourage continued usage.
2. In the beginning of social, people would post all kinds of content. As the general public became more aware and educated on online behavior and its implications, users have been (in some cases, not all) more careful about what they post. This “temporary” content option seems to be trying to lull users into posting things that can easily disappear, encouraging more content to be shared and increased usage on social sites that have seen a decline in overall usage (think Facebook).
3. Specific to Facebook, since it seems they are modeling Snapchat with this newest feature, I’m wondering if they won’t try to turn this feature to businesses as a paid advertising option. Companies have started using Snapchat to create promotions and discounts that can be used at the point of sale by users simply opening the Snap at the register to reveal the discount. It creates immediacy because they cannot open it beforehand or it will disappear before they can use it. Perhaps Facebook will allow companies to post with time specific offers on Facebook as competition. It seems features such as this are usually rolled out to users and then turned into a paid advertising option for businesses. I could be wrong, but it was a thought I had after reading the latest social news.
But here are some potential problems with offering these services in the spirit of making content temporary:
1. Users still don’t have the control they think they have. While social sites state that the content will be permanently deleted by the servers, we can’t be sure this is true. It remains to be seen how effective this really is – just because a user cannot see the content they’ve deleted, no one for sure knows where it goes, and if it’s somehow stored in the depths of Facebook somewhere.
2. Even if you delete content, it doesn’t mean someone else didn’t save it. You can delete a post, tweet, text or image, and it will be gone as far as you’re concerned, but what if someone took a screen shot, saved it to their computer or did something else with it? As we’ve seen with Snapchat, people find workarounds. Do a search on iTunes or Google Play for Snapchat saving apps. There are plenty out there – it didn’t take long for someone to find a way to make the temporary, permanent.
3. Social media monitoring programs can archive data – if you’re worried about what you’ve recently posted, as you are looking for a new job and have heard that employers check social media when selecting applicants, simply deleting the post may not work. Social media monitoring programs are sophisticated, with many archiving databases for as long as a couple of years. This means that even though you deleted your content it may still be hanging around an archive for a while. If employers use a formal social media monitoring tool, this content still may be visible to them.
4. By offering temporary content, we are doing a disservice to our younger generation. It is already an uphill battle educating teens on the implications of their social activity. Despite education at home and school, teens just don’t get it yet. Offering these types of service to this particular age demographic doesn’t help. As the future of social, these young adults need to fully understand how to responsibly use social media and grasp the implications of what they post online today may have in their adult lives.
The trend to offer “temporarily available” social content is worrisome. It comes across as a bit misleading and has the potential to cause bigger issues down the road. To be honest, when Snapchat was first available, I thought it would be a brief, passing trend. The news that Facebook jumped on the bandwagon made me realize that this may be a new trend in social.