Selective Sharing and Users’ Audience Management

Since Snapchat turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook in early November, many people must have been waiting for new features: time-limited status updates, a chat option without saved messaging ‒ anything that would allow for ephemeral content-exchange on the leading social network. Meanwhile, the messaging application Snapchat enables users to share visual content which is automatically deleted within a specified time limit. The receiver is not able to access a file after a certain time defined by the sender. The app has since been criticised for diverse leaks and additional functions which counteract such a ‘self-destruction’. However, the popularity of such an app indicates users’ need for control over the content they share ‒ a desire which one could have expected to be incorporated by Facebook rather promptly.

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