Around my town, it's not uncommon at all these days to see teenagers downtown stop in mid stride, arms extended, to snap a "selfie" (or self portrait) with their smart phone. If you didn't know better, you might think this was a case of mass hysteria—a narcissistic twist on the Salem Witch Trials. If you're of a certain age, however, you know the compulsive "selfie snapping" is a telltale sign of a snap-chatter.
SnapChat, of course, is that massively popular messaging and picture sharing service that you've never heard of and have absolutely no use for if you're under the age of, say, 17. The two-year-old photo messaging service is the brainchild of Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who are described as "two Stanford guys who love building cool things."
Using it, you can send photos or videos of yourself with witty captions to friends who "follow you" (Twitter style) as well as post "Stories" or series of photos or videos to your SnapChat profile.
When you take a "snap," you can decide how long you want it to be viewable—up to ten seconds. When you send that photo or video to a friend, they can open it and view it for the length of time you specified, after which it is deleted from SnapChat's servers and from the receiving mobile device.
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