• by Joe Mandese , March 2, 2017

On the heels of Snapchat’s $24 billion IPO, Time magazine poses the cover story question: “What’s it worth to be yourself online?” The cover story itself actually focuses more on what it’s worth to Snapchat -- and its investors -- for its legions of users to express themselves online via Snapchat’s apps.

“Snap, isn’t really a social-­media company. … It trades in intimacy, not popularity,” Time columnist Joel Stein writes in this week’s cover story. “As its name so neatly explains, Snapchat is really a utility company for visual texting. … The technology successes of the internet age have been about making information free and easy. But Snapchat is a tech reactionary, offering an escape from the gameified popularity contest measured in friends, followers, likes and comments. Snapchat is built by and for a generation that wants to use technology to improve its antisocial social life.”