[strangecyan]

As I mentioned in another comment, joining Facebook is something that just isn't a good idea for young people. The network that is praised as the primary reason Facebook is successful in the article, does more damage to someone's future than gives them benefit in the present. Schools and Colleges running checks on Facebook for anything negative about them, finding one student and following the network for other, has affected some of my friends. As has employers and work experience checking Facebook. 'The Network' also means that family are suggested to friend you almost immediately; I don't need to explain the problems with that. Snapchat is a safe haven for creative, throw away content that isn't indexable, searchable, doesn't have a social graph or a permissions model.

[hocuspocus]

First, the idea of a school running checks on Facebook sounds pretty comical to me. Your schools are definitely over-funded if they have the time and resources for that. I went to a school that is the topic of several public groups on Facebook, including a satirical web-comic that was run by a student for many years.

But more importantly, do you realize nobody forces you to post or share anything? And even if you do, it's very easy to restrict permissions to a few selected circles. Your family members send friend requests? Fine, add them to the "restricted" list. A lot of people (me included) have stopped using the main newsfeed, and I notice that most of the picture sharing is done on Instagram nowadays, but it's still a convenient tool, especially when you have friends on every continent. And it's really not that hard to keep things private.