Rapid changes in social media apps are forcing us all to keep up

As WhatsApp copies Instagram copies Snapchat, everyone’s joining the sprint
Going live: Facebook Messenger Day is one of many rapid social media updates offering live streaming and stories
Facebook

These are fast times. In the world of 5G, slowpokes flounder — forswear the merest of iOS updates and you’ll be made to feel totally irrelevant.

Social media continues to speed up and you don’t want to be left behind. Last month WhatsApp launched a new feature called Status, which invites you to upload photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Users will see any contacts’ updates appear on a Status homepage.

In turn, anyone who uses Snapchat (or has heard someone talk about it) has remarked that WhatsApp’s update is virtually identical to Snapchat’s “Stories” function: on both, the images and videos elapse after a day, and both platforms offer filters for overwriting selfies with text, or free-scrawling colourful scribbles, or annotating them with emojis.

All of which, in turn, sounds remarkably similar to what Instagram is doing with its version of exactly the same function, which it launched in August. Facebook — which owns Instagram — is reportedly planning the same for the newsfeed. For now, as a holding update, you can already send photos using a camera incorporated into its messenger function without leaving the platform. You can tweak these photos with filters, text and emojis.

PA

The result is frenzied and ephemeral. Every evening you check in halfheartedly with Instagram while you wait for the bus; you tap on one of the bobbing heads at the top of your screen and are swiftly dragged into a high-speed retrospective of the last 24 hours in the life of someone you may or may not know.

The opening video is unsteady — sometimes poorly lit — but no matter, as it’s already over and you’re viewing a high-production version of their weekend brunch. Come back tomorrow and it’s all over anyway.

Faster still are the live streams. Depending on your notification settings you may be informed as soon as a Facebook or Instagram account starts a live stream — nudging you to tune in before you miss it.

12 years of Apple's iPhone

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If you follow news organisations on either platform, the relentless news cycle is likely draining your battery as you are called to, and obediently do, watch yet another new gaffe or conference or speech. The thrill — and panic — is palpable.

How do you keep up? Unfortunately even Luddites acknowledge they need to join the sprint: before long friends will be issuing engagement notifications and birthday invites via stories and livestreams — opt out and you’ll be excommunicated, probably.

If the high-velocity pace of the updates is leaving you out of puff, then consider rationing: put your phone into “do not disturb” mode and you won’t get the notifications unless you manually check them. On the other hand, as acknowledged, this could mean you grow swiftly irrelevant.

You cannot beat them — you must sign up. Sure, sharing a short-term montage of your past 24 hours might feel futile, navel-gazing and self-involved but you must overcome your reticence. Start with an impersonal picture — something safe, like your commute — and you will graduate, eventually and inevitably, into streams of yourself in the karaoke booth at a bowling alley. High-speed hijinks are good for the brand.

Follow Phoebe Luckhurst on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst

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