Waddell, T. F. (2016). The Allure of Privacy or the Desire for Self-Expression? Identifying Users Gratifications for Ephemeral, Photograph-Based Communication. Cyberpsychology, Behaviour

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Time-limited or “temporary” messaging programs continue to rise in popularity in our contemporary social media ecology due to the perceived privacy they afford for users. Recent controversies in society have revealed that content shared on ephemeral messaging services are easily retrievable, thus undermining the perceiving privacy they provide. Waddell (2016) in his article “The Allure of Privacy or the Desire for Self-Expression? Identifying Users’ Gratifications of Ephemeral, Photograph-Based Communication” questions if the allure of privacy still motivates the use of temporary messaging programs, and if not privacy, then what other uses gratifications motivate users? Waddell discusses the history and proliferation of mobile applications that provide temporary messaging, more specifically Snapchat, whose success has foreshadowed a new of applications focusing on ephemeral message service. Waddell’s research questions are based on the concerns of ephemeral messaging due to explicit content, effects on relationships, and the lack of security and privacy. The study asks the following research questions: “ what are the gratifications that promote the use of ephemeral messaging applications? Are temporary messaging services popular because they afford privacy, or do other gratifications promote their use that have yet to be identified in past work?” (pp. 441-442).

“The Allure of Privacy or the Desire for Self-Expression? Identifying Users’ Gratifications of Ephemeral, Photograph-Based Communication” utilizes a relevant theoretical framework of Modality-Agency-Interactivity-Navigability (MAIN) model to examine the motivations of ephemeral messaging applications. The MAIN model “theorizes that to understand the gratifications fulfilled by a technology, it is necessary to identify the affordances … that constitute the medium in question”; therefore the MAIN model was chosen to study the uses and gratifications of ephemeral messaging that motivate use.

Waddell conducted open-ended interviews with 22 young adults between the ages of 18-22, who are current users of the ephemeral mobile application, Snapchat. The participants were recruited from undergraduate courses at a large northeastern university in the United States, who were compensated for their involvement in the study with extra credit. The interviews ranged from 20 and 30 minutes in length, asking questions specifically about Snapchat, its popularity, and the personal gratifications they get from the application. Results found two themes that could be identified: the use of recordability affordance to maintain privacy and the use of modality affordances for self-expression and community building that are not satisfied through other communication technologies. Users identified the satisfaction for the features of Snapchat (time-limited, “disappearing” images and videos), but were still skeptical of the perceived privacy but use the application anyways due to the communication design and format.

Waddell’s article lacks a significant literature review or an overview of other scholarship in the field of Snapchat and ephemeral messaging applications and social media services. Without an in-depth literature review, it is difficult to understand/conduct this study and research without the context of the field and previous findings on the topic. The study also lacks a description of the detailed interview questions and responses, which would have made the article stronger for future researchers. Although the findings are theoretically useful, the results should still be contextualized according to the limitations of conducting qualitative research (p. 444). The results were also drawn from a rather small sample of young, mostly female, and mostly white respondents, which may affect the findings, and it not representative of all Snapchat users.

With the “thick description” offered through the findings of the qualitative study offers the first step in uses and gratifications research within the existing scholarship of Snapchat and ephemeral or time-limited image and video sharing, specifically using the MAIN model as a theoretical framework for the research. Waddell also provides an alternative perspective on ephemeral messaging in relation to Snapchat use in terms of questioning uses and gratifications of users in spite of issues of privacy and security of the content that is shared on the platform. Although further research must be done in terms of uses and gratifications, Waddell offers a fascinatingly new perspective and research for existing and future scholarship.

To conclude, the results of the present study reflect self-expression and relational maintenance as key gratifications that users receive through the visual ephemeral messaging applications, more specifically through time-limited video and image sharing and communication on Snapchat. Privacy gratifications were generally dismissed and perceived as not important in Snapchat use. Waddell’s research provides a key piece in understanding the move towards ephemeral messaging social media services, and that communication and interface design is gearing towards the uses and gratifications or needs that users highlight in their practice and communication styles in contemporary society.

-Alex Lapkowski

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