Social Media Apps

Facebook is an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Facebook allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old worldwide to become a registered user of the website, although proof is not required. Facebook had over one billion active users as of September 2012, of which approximately 9% were fake. Due to the large volume of data collected about users, the service's privacy policies have faced scrutiny, among other criticisms. Most teens left Facebook after their parents started an account.

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras. Users can also apply digital filters to their images. The maximum duration for Instagram videos is 15 seconds.

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or the mobile device app. Twitter just developed an option that will allow for money transactions – another indicator that the teens have left the site.

Snapchat is a photo messaging application developed students at Stanford University. Using the application, users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients. These sent photographs and videos are known as "Snaps". Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps (as of April 2014, the range is from 1 to 10 seconds), after which they will be hidden from the recipient's device and deleted from Snapchat's servers. According to Snapchat in May 2014, the app's users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day, while Snapchat Stories content was being viewed 500 million times per day.

Vine is a short-form video sharing service. The service allows users to record and edit six-second long looping video clips, and revine. Revine is where users can share other peoples posts with followers. Some Vines are revined automatically based on what is popular. The videos can be then published through Vine's social network and shared on other services such as Facebook and Twitter. Vine's app can also be used to browse through videos posted by other users, along with groups of videos by theme, and trending videos.

Yik Yak is an anonymous social media app. It is available for use on smartphones and it allows people to anonymously create and view posts within a 1.5 mile radius depending on how many other users are nearby. It differs from other anonymous sharing apps such as PostSecret and Whisper in that it is intended for sharing primarily with those in close proximity to the user, potentially making it more intimate and relevant for people reading the posts. All users have the ability to contribute to the stream by writing, responding, and up voting or down voting yaks. Currently YikYak is not accessible within the campuses of Randolph Township Schools

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in mid-February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. Want to know what goes on after the prom in Vermont – see You Tube. Think the site isn’t available in school? Ask a student to get it on your computer for you.