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Snapchat is getting old. Literally.
In hindsight, there were so many warning signs. First, the Wall Street Journal – a digital newspaper that has an average readership age of 51 — claimed a spot on Snapchat Discover, nestling itself among brands like DailyMail, Vice, and Buzzfeed, who use the platform to target coveted millennials.
Then came the White House. On January 11, the presidential palace joined Snapchat with the handle @WhiteHouse. A day after, the Wall Street Journal put together this guide, Snapchat 101. While a how-to guide in itself isn’t a red flag, it’s the fact that it’s published five years after Snapchat’s launch. And today, “Good Luck America” was added, a Discover channel where you can find political news-related snaps.
But the warning signs don’t stop there.
“‘Man, I thought we had, like, one more year before you guys came in,'” relayed my 40-year-old boss, who was quoting what his own 16-year-old son said aloud when he saw that his uncle friended him on Snapchat.
This same boss friended me minutes after we talked. (There go my gratuitous selfies.)
This story — and similar rumblings — makes one wonder if Snapchat is headed for Facebook’s fate. Parents, who might share snaps of family vacations use Discover to follow the news the way their kids do, could very well push the current crowd out. In 2011, Facebook was primarily dominated by teens and college students. But slowly — and then, seemingly, all at once — older generations snuck in. Even though kids could cleverly restrict what their parents could see, it was happening: our Facebook club was collapsing.
Rooted in dick pics and disappearing selfies, Snapchat was the new safe haven of debauchery. Daily Facebook updates devolved into mundane weekly check-ins and Snapchat took its place. The obsession was real. In four years — between 2011 (the year Snapchat launched) and 2014 — 25 percent of teenagers abandoned Facebook.
Here come the parents
Hop on the freeway in San Francisco or New York and you might spot Snapchat billboards. Bill-boards. As in, old-school signage aimed for the 35+ demographic that, according to Phys.com, are for “fun and awareness.”
But here’s the most chilling evidence it may be time for a new social club: In 2015, Snapchat increased its 25- to 34-year-old user base by 103 percent and its 35+ group grew by 84 percent.
Maybe Peach arrived at the perfect time.
