Jordan Crook, reporting for TechCrunch, writes an informative anecdote framing Evan Spiegel of Snapchat’s persona against a body of e-mails recently uncovered by ValleyWag. Crook really hits the spot here:

To be fair, we all say things that are meant to be private, and when Spiegel sent these emails to his Kappa Sig bros, he probably never imagined that they’d be paraded out for the world to see. That said, we can’t possibly comment on them without pointing out the deep irony: Evan is his own ideal user.

Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who was allegedly very high at some point during the writing of these emails, built something that is meant to protect against this very situation. Snapchat is an app that sends self-destructing messages, so even if you’re too drunk to have sex and end up urinating on some poor girl named Lily, your correspondence about those events never reaches the light of day.

I want to give Spiegel the benefit of the doubt in that he has changed, he has matured, he has a better view of women than before. But my goodness, these e-mails reveal an extensive pattern of idiotic thought process paired with massive insecurity and misogynistic, ancient, “bro” attitudes about women.

It’s better that Facebook didn’t acquire him. From the privacy mess to the condescending, self-serving, holier than thou attitude of Snapchat, it’s a minefield of nonsense.

More and more, I’m convinced that these ephemeral messaging apps are the extreme end of the social spectrum like being public with every status is on the other extreme.