Snapchat = happienss

          Recent studies by the University of Michigan show that Snapchat makes users more happy than when they use other social media applications such as Facebook or Twitter. Users of Snapchat underwent a test and a survey that involved 154 college students. The students went through ""experience sampling" — which measures how people think, feel and behave moment-to-moment in their daily lives". The participants were then sent snapchats various times throughout the next two weeks and along with each snapchat came a question such as:

How negative or positive do you feel right now?

How did your most recent interaction occur?

How pleasant or unpleasant was your most recent interaction?

Within that interaction, how supportive or unsupportive was that person to you?

How close are you to that person?

          The results were that Snapchat gave more positive results than those of Facebook or Twitter. Researchers believe this is because using Snapchat was more like having a face to face conversation. Users liked it better than other social media because they saw it as less formal, easier, and better for documenting small moments in everyday life; unlike Facebook where you usually document big events such as birthdays or graduations, etc. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/10/snapchat_makes_users_happier_t.html

Faith has a Twitter Handle

          A couple weeks ago Pope Francis came and visited the united states, and over the past couple of weeks selfies and other posts about the Pope have been taking over the internet. These posts draw attention to the Pope's twitter, @Pontifex, and have us looking more closely at his social media influence. As CNBC stated in an article "his powerful statements over his Twitter feed continue to spur a movement that allows us to turn the proverbial mirror on ourselves and see the reality unfolding before us. More than just moral platitudes, the pope's tweets serve as a wake-up call to the people of the world". The Pope's attempt to unite the world through his tweets have allowed younger generations to now become part of this movement. They are able to follow the Pope's twitter just like they would a celebrity and this reaches a whole new type of audience. I think that this is a great way for people to hear the voice of faith in their everyday life. Personally I am not very religious but I do follow the Pope on twitter and some of his posts on twitter do give me something to think about and to consider. I think it is a great idea for the Pope to be involved in the developing technologies that have such a huge influence on society. 

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/24/twitter-selfies-pope-francis-rocks-the-internet-commentary.html

Social Influencers

          Social media influencers are becoming a common thing on all forms of social media. These influencers or social "stars" have huge followings and are "famous" on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Vine. Vine is a new and upcoming social media site, it consists of 6 second videos. Vine works kind of like twitter where followers can like, follow, or re-vine these videos. Now a new thing is that these social stars are getting picked up by talent agencies and are making money from their posts. They are getting paid for using sponsored products in their posts or just simply advertising a company or product.
          Social media strategists believe that the reason these stars are so popular is because they come off as real people to followers. In their videos they are not photoshopped or airbrushed and their posts can range from stupid and random to serious and emotional. Just like the rest of us they share their feelings on social media for all of their millions of followers to see.
          This is why using these stars to advertise products is becoming very effective. Because their follows see them as real people and they relate to them, they are more likely to trust a product that the star is promoting in their posts. These stars have a powerful influence on social media and are taking advertising to a whole new level. People can now see how these stars use and/ or advertise these products in a create way. Personally I think it is a very smart tactic of companies such as T-mobile, Coca-Cola, and others to use these stars in order to relate to their younger consumers.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/14/influencers-social-media-advertising-apps-instagram

Snapchat's Creepin People Out

          Snapchat has once again come out with a new update that has users a little weirded out. One of the features it includes is that there are new emojis that appear next to your friends names. The two newest emojis are a gold star and a baby and users were left with no explanation of what they meant. The baby emoji next to someones name means that they are a new friend and if there is a gold star next to someones name it means one of their snapchats has recently been replayed by someone.
         Another new feature Snapchat has is the ability for people to replay snapchats for 24 hours after first viewing it. They now also offer the ability for users to purchase replays which is a smart way to generate revenue because, who wouldn't want to see their friend look stupid more than once?
          Just another way snapchat is differentiating itself from other social media apps is now snapchat offers "lenses" that allow users lenses created by the snapchat company to make their face look funnier (and sometimes more terrifying) than usual. It uses facial recognition to correctly a lense or kind of like a mask that will alter your appearance. Some lenses like the rainbow throw up (below) are harmless and good fun but some of the snapchats like the bug eyes are quite scary and has some snapchat users a little frightened.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/16/snapchat-update-in-app-purchases-terrifying-new-lenses
www.idigitaltimes.com/snapchat-emoji-meanings-what-does-gold-star-and-baby-next-to-names-mean-477962

"Project Lightning"

          Twitter has come out with a new update called "Project Lightning". This new update, along with new emojis, features a button called "moments" on twitter. This "moments" button features live stories that can be viewed reguardless of the people you follow. Users are then able to share or like these stories, or just continue to look through more stories that are available. The stories are created from employees at the twitter company but also from some of their partners, who include: Bleacher Report, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Fox News, Getty Images, Mashable, MLB, NASA, New York Times, Vogue and the Washington Post. Twitter follows Snapchat's lead in using the "moments" feature as a new revenue model from its contributors.This idea for live news stories is very similar to the snapchat live stories. Both stories even come from most of the same media partners. Twitter and Snapchat are using the live and interactive features in their apps to push their apps to be more mainstream and create more revenue.

http://www.ibtimes.com/twitter-inc-twtr-releases-moments-snapchat-app-update-live-events-2128808