I mentioned before that I got on Snapchat to explore possibly using it for my book cover work. So far, I can’t see it being very effective for my kind of work. My covers just wouldn’t translate well into 10-second candid videos shot from a phone, so I don’t see myself adding “snaps” to a “story.” It might be cool for conferences and conventions, though, or for sharing the arrival of contributor copies of print books with followers. Or, on a personal basis, it might be nice to share bits of my nature hikes with close friends.

So I’m probably not very likely to “snap” anything to send to people or to add to a story.

That said, it’s been an interesting ride. I’ve added probably about 175 people and spent some time each day watching their stories. There are DJs, actors, models, comedians, musicians, businesses, fashion and beauty professionals, venture capitalists, and a strange but very popular breed of folk called Snapchat influencers and Snapchat storytellers.

These influencers and storytellers are fairly young people, really savvy and creative, and they all appear to know each other and sometimes hang out together and go to the same events, like the big fashion week in France. As I was getting to know what sort of things they regularly snapped, I had this odd sense of déja vu.

This particular group of Snapchat people are very, very popular among the Snapchat world; they have a ton of followers who watch their stories everyday and even participate or provide some sort of feedback. They have fans. A LOT of fans.

But the déja vu … the atmosphere is very much like the mid- to late-’90s internet, and into the aughts, when blogging was new, and social media was in its nascent form. I remember those days; it was an exciting time. I was reading Derek Powazek, Jeffrey Zeldman, and the rest of the blogging brat pack. They were all young and full of visionary dreams and grand ideas, coding skills, and lots of hope and drive. They all read and referred to each other regularly on their blogs, and they all got together at these new types of conferences that revolved around the culture of blogging and various forms of online forums and galleries which encouraged participation from the entire community. Things like the Webby Awards came into existence to recognize the value they were bringing to the world … because the older establishment saw their endeavors as mostly frivolous masturbation, viewing blogging as being way too open about your personal life.

BUT, many of them built a lot of the web sites and apps we see today, the web sites and apps that now have that established brick-and-mortar feel to them, and they got older and more settled, became CEOs, founders, and moguls in their own right, teaching workshops and seminars and passing on their hard-earned knowledge to those following in their footsteps. They changed the world and moved it forward.

And now the Snapchat generation has come along, and the atmosphere is very reminiscent of that.

These people are very video savvy, more vloggers than bloggers. And to prove to you how new this breed is, let me tell you that my browser wanted to autocorrect vloggers into bloggers because vlogger doesn’t appear to be an official word yet. But it is a very real thing to the newer internet generation. It is more the norm now than blogging. People are more likely to watch a short video than to read a blog because the average attention span has gotten exponentially shorter.

So this generation is even more open … because they are showing their actual faces to the world, not just in a still photograph, but in all their animated forms. They’re also sharing their actual voices to be heard both literally and figuratively. They are OUT THERE, warts and all. They snap themselves getting ready for bed, eating, dancing, getting their hair and makeup done, making faces at their reflections on the phone, traveling, and trying to decide whether they should do this or do that.

And they’re full of creative ideas, entertaining stories, big dreams, huge ambitions. They’re not just technically savvy; they’re savvy in video production, design, marketing, and public relations. They get together and collaborate and produce things that people watch and see and buy, and they get together at these brand new summits receiving awards that never existed before, like the Vloggies.

Plus, like the generation before them, they’re figuring out how to make money out of all this, how to build the vehicles that will carry them even further toward their dreams. Many of them have sponsorships, and they’re advertising pens, juicers, makeup, vodka, and car services. They are bit by bit building their empires, and the people watching them are even younger still, all school-aged and impatient to take over when the next big thing hits the scene.

It’s the same thing, over again, but spun anew. It’s exciting, and it makes me wonder what the future has in store for all of us.

The only big difference I see is that there is no archive of these Snapchatters’ feats. Because of the ephemeral nature of Snapchat, these influencers and storytellers must continually create new content to stay relevant and keep their followers. They can’t sit on their laurels and enjoy the benefits of their past accomplishments; they have to keep accomplishing, like sharks in the water who have to keep moving or they die.

And that’s what makes them so good and so inspiring. They manage to keep it up and maintain a level of quality and creativity that keeps people coming back.

I once worked with someone who insisted that everyone’s creativity was finite. I’m looking forward to seeing this Snapchat generation prove him wrong.

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