Snapchat: Too Good for Facebook?

Most of us students have been around and using Facebook since our high school days. It was the best thing since MySpace and instant messenger on AOL. But ever since technology has been changing and the idea of social media has been growing in concept and application, Facebook has started to become obsolete for the younger generations in America and around the world. Now with 3G and wifi devices, we can post quick messages on the go with Twitter, take pictures on the fly with Instagram, and now we can send messages with real life emojis through Snapchat.

Recently, Snapchat turned down a huge offer of money and ownership from Facebook, and it has a lot of people in the social media world questioning why they didn't jump on the Facebook bandwagon. Snapchat has only been gaining in popularity since the beginning of 2013, yet it is still a major app that students use on a daily basis. Semil Shah, a columnist for techcrunch.com, recently wrote an article about this very issue and used a quote from Batman: The Dark Knight, that sums up this dilemma with Snapchat.

(The Joker burning the city's money talking to Batman)

"It's not about the money, it's about sending a message."

So what makes Snapchat so popular? I would like to do a timeline of Snapchat's beginning and success, taking in account testimonies from students about how often they use the app, why it is popular, and if they think it will still be for a while. From a professional standpoint, I would like to talk to professors in social media and marketing to gauge what makes Snapchat a good app, and if the decision to leave the money was a good idea or not. What are the logistics of Snapchat?

Photo credit from tommiemedia.com.