If you actively check social media, it is no secret that apps such as Instagram and Snapchat are some of the most popular apps you use daily. But if you think back to just months ago, the media center was flooded with students who weren’t able to look up from their phones because of their newfound obsession with the game Trivia Crack, which enabled people to challenge their friends to fast paced trivia games spanning multiple subject areas. Yet if you were to look around the media center today, the game is almost nowhere to be found. What in the world happened to Trivia Crack, and why do students believe it dropped in popularity so fast?
Throughout the past decade, social media has become an important part of teenagers’ lives, as it not only allows them to share what they are doing, but also allows them to keep up to date with what is going on around them. While Instagram on the surface may only seem like a photo sharing app, it helps update followers on your visits, activities, and even- with so-called “foodstagrams”- your food.
These days, Instagram has topped the charts of bestselling apps, and has been used significantly more than often than even Facebook. More than 9 out of 10 teenagers use social media, and Instagram is by the far the most popular social media platform. Twitter is used by 59 percent of teens, and Facebook by 45 percent. Since the spring of 2013, Facebook’s popularity has fallen by 27 percent, according to the results of a survey conducted by Piper Jaffray, an investment bank and asset management firm.
The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger said, “There’s no numerical evidence that Facebook has “lost its cool,” but you can feel it. You hear people talking about it. Instead of seeing Facebook blue illuminating the phones of fellow subway and bus riders, you see Instagram or Snapchat or Twitter. Facebook has become a normal thing — a “social utility” everyone uses but few are excited about.”
Schechter Westchester students typically follow trendier apps like Instagram and Snapchat more frequently than Facebook and gaming apps such as Trivia Crack.
Some students had a hard time explaining why certain apps lose popularity, but reasoned that they may just not be able to keep up like social media apps do.
Games that test knowledge never change; one could be receiving the same trivia questions over and over again, causing the game to become boring and meaningless. However, Instagram and Snapchat are always changing, adding videos and new filters.
In addition, students thought that the amount of advertising done by the app creators may be able to predict its future longevity: “They didn’t promote [Trivia Crack] very well. They could’ve done a lot more advertisements for it,” sophomore Savvy Zedeck said. “There’s Candy Crush commercials now. Nowadays you can connect anything to your Facebook account, such as Candy Crush, even Instagram, and I think advertising is what keeps most apps popular. When games don’t advertise, it causes them to not do so well.”
There are multiple steps essential keeping an apps reputation at the top. An app that enables interaction with your friends and updates with upcoming trends is bound to be appreciated by many, and here at Schechter Westchester, social media has served to bring our Kehilah close together.
