Confused about Snapchat? Can you legally drink? The Wall Street Journal has your back.

The Wall Street Journal explains Snapchat to adults

(Image credit: The Wall Street Journal)

published 19 May 2015

If you're an adult, and you're perfectly satisfied with your Instagram and your Twitter and your Facebook, the social media apps favored by the kids may seem irrelevant, even intimidating. "But you, grown-up, can actually use Snapchat — and enjoy it," explains Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Sintumuang in a video introduction for the over-25 set. He walks you through how to get started, and tries to convince you it's worth staring down "your mortality" to sign up (there's a good chance none of your over-25 friends are "snapping"). Why bother? Your current social media go-tos are "about putting your best, if false, face forward," he says, but the more ephemeral Snapchat promises "to capture life as it unfolds, in all its messiness, in real time." Which is obviously why the kids use it. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.