If you are already familiar with Snapchat, SeeSaw is nothing new. We could very much say that SeeSaw is a Japanese version of this photo messaging app that lets you decide how long your photos can be viewed by the recipient — be it your family member, friend or colleague. From time to time, we all do things on a whim and regret such act a moment later. With the ever-increasing use of social networking service, the pictures and videos that we upload on the web can now be viewed and saved by million others instantly.
SeeSaw, on the other hand, prevents such unwanted spread of personal photos and videos by only letting users see messages for a few seconds. With Japanese digital users typically more cautious about privacy than their western counterparts, plus the wave of Twitter photo scandals this year that literally caused bankruptcies, this app comes out at an apt time indeed.
Just like Snapchat, a sender can set a “self-destruct” time limit for each message. The recipient can then view the message for the set time after which the message will be deleted from both the SeeSaw server and the recipient’s device. (Be careful, though, Snapchat at least has been hacked to overwrite this function!) Unless the recipient takes a screenshot of the message and saves it in their device, it will only remain in their memories as a moment captured and shared among a few.
As we can see in the above images, they seem to be targeting young users who don’t usually get to appreciate the fact that life indeed is a mere chain of brief moments. In a way, SeeSaw might go against the fundamental purpose of moment-capturing devices which we use to “freeze” the moment and preserve it for the rest of our lives.
A company like Mind Wave Inc. knows this too, since they created a character brand named after ichigo-ichie — a proverb which often translated as “Treasure every encounter, as it will never recur”. These characters are printed on various stationery goods which can be purchased in store or online.
The brand is perhaps a reminder to young people that nothing lasts forever, especially the happy moments. To me, it does seem a bit cheesy to feature school life in the app’s advertising, but many of us have learned good and bad, right and wrong first in classrooms — and that nothing good or bad lasts forever.
