Snap Maps: Fostering a Global Community?

Earlier this week, I read a post by Alexis about Snap Maps.  Snap Maps are a new Snapchat feature that allow you to get a location-based glimpse of your friends and events happening around the world.  Here is a glimpse at my Snap Map:

I like the feature.  I think it's interesting.  Snapchat filters the content so that users aren't exposed to innapropriate or explicit snaps.  Also, Snapchat users can turn off the feature so their location isn't public.

I wanted to see what the Internet was saying about it.  Obviously, there were a lot of negative opinions about it regarding the safety of Snapchat users (especially young children who technically aren't supposed to be using it anyway...).  I want to focus on the positives.  I read an interesting NPR article that is relevant to our course material this week:

"'There's something incredible about this,' says Jill Walker Rettberg, a professor of digital culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. 'You can see the whole world. You can see life in a community you might not see otherwise,' she says...The notion that the map could foster a global community or sense of togetherness was important in Snap Map's development...Snaps are so often the most quotidian scenes that you'd see in the U.S. — only they're happening abroad: silly faces at happy hour, snippets from long car rides, a man salivating over a blurry plate of rice and meat in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a woman trying to coax a squirrel over with food in Mexico City."

I like this perspective of Snap Maps fostering a global community.  Based on what you know about Snap Maps, do you think it has the potential to work?