Snapchat and the revenge of the ugliness

You have always been the “homely, but funny”? Your pictures are not as good as other people's? Don't cry, I have the solution for you: it's called Snapchat.

Snapchat was born in 2011, but became popular among the public only a couple of years later, and it's a social media app which tells stories of daily life. Unofficially, however, it's a network for sending hot videos and pictures (called “snap”) without risk, because they are going to self-destruct after reading. 

But, the real innovation is that Snapchat has liberalized the ugliness. After years of terror and performance anxiety caused by the dictatorship of Instagram, Snapchat has broken the fetters of aesthetic oppression, making us feel free to be ugly.

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No filters (there are some, but fewer and funny), no stress to create the perfect picture with the perfect pose and the perfect face, no nothing. On Snapchat we are free to be ourselves. Preferably, you should be funny and casual. And if you appear in your pajamas or on the toilet bowl it's even better. 

If Instagram aims to flawless beauty, that of toned down pictures, shots with VSCO Cam filters and pilates-like contortions just for showing a tattoo, Snapchat rewards spontaneity, even if it's not perfect. On this social it has come to the point that people disapprove those “Instagram style” posturing. The fact that some well-known fashion bloggers have proved to be not so funny, because they are too “not natural”, too cool, well, too “Instagram is a proof of this. 

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Is this the key to success of Snapchat? Probably. In Italy the app is still unknown to many, but in other countries it's the new Facebook, especially among the youngsters. The secret of its popularity is its immediacy and freshness, in line with new generation. But, for me, the strong point of Snapchat is its being “true”, having changed the beauty standards typical of other social networks to benefit the user's personality. 

Forced beauty and perfection at all costs are boring. Far from being an innovation, instagram has inflated a style who has became less attractive and, among others, fake. Don't get me wrong, I use and like Instagram, but maybe sometimes we need the antidote for its textbook beauty.

And so, Snapchat comes, the social where being without makeup is not a bad thing, but a pride.