As a high-pitched “chirp” notification sounds, a room full of teenagers quickly turn their heads to check their phones. The result of that captivating sound and sight of the ghost icon: a downward mental spiral.
Nowadays, Snapchat is the main way of contact and connection for teenagers. When making new friends, it’s expected for people to ask for a Snap username, not for a phone number or other social media apps.
Despite its popularity, I’ve noticed a large trend in Snapchatters – they don’t enjoy using the app. I’ve heard my friends and classmates complain or get frustrated with some of its features – like the idea of everyday streaks and snapscores. It gets irritating and tiresome and can feel like a chore we have to do.
One of the most common trends on Snapchat is the daily streaks, where people send at least one snap daily to their friends. If snaps aren’t exchanged, an hourglass symbol appears, acting as a streak reminder. I’ve noticed that this creates unwanted pressure to respond and it also enforces shallow connections. Personally, I have streaks with people I’ve never made contact with in real life, sending unecessary “ceiling pics” back and forth.
In addition to some users not being satisfied, these stressful features are also enforcing bad habits, like excessive screen time or forcing connections. It can also be time-wasting.
These habits are normalized. It’s routine to send selfies of our faces every day to our friends, or even people we’ve never met, without real conversation. Snapchat is not healthy for users to be active on, and creates a negative impact on not only them, but the people around them.
According to Social Shepherd, more than five billion Snaps are created every day. Over 900 million users in the country are constantly active on the app.
A large amount of these always-active Snapchatters are addicted. Along with myself, I see tons of students or people
my age constantly using the app, often disregarding what’s going on around us. This takes a toll on school, hobbies, and other parts of our lives as the app takes hold of your mind as you continue to Snap or post on your story.
Snapchat can also have a negative effect on real world relationships and friendship. Being left on “opened” or “delivered,” or someone “half-swiping” our chats have caused us all to question our relationships, whether it’s a close friend, or a crush. Sometimes people are busy and don’t respond to snaps right away, but people often find themselves overanalyzing these small, digital interactions. It’s unhealthy to obsess and overthink about something online that would be considered normal in person.
Yes, I’ll admit, I find myself checking people’s snap scores occasionally to see if they’ve snapped others before me, or
if they’re active. The ability Snapchat gives us to know everything about our friends’ activitiy online can lead to misunderstanding, insecurity, and unecessary stress that would not exist if all of our interactions were face-to-face.
When it comes to making friends or connections on Snapchat, people go right to the Quick Add feature, which suggests friends to add, whether you know them or not. Some enjoy the feature, because its suggestions can lead them to make connections with people they want to talk to. On the other hand, these relationships and connections are rushed and forced. Meeting people and making connections on Quick Add isn’t anything like the real experience. People suggested could live anywhere in the world and be any age, lending itself to additional safety concerns. Giving users, including children, complete access to add individuals that they don’t know is clearly a dangerous feature. It’s
common for strangers and older users to come into contact with younger users who may not understand the risks, often putting them in danger.
Like other social media platforms, Snapchat is used as a tool to create memories and keep contact. The Snapchat camera roll allows users to save photos and videos to the app, preserving meaningful moments. However, when overused or relied upon to form connections with strangers, Snapchat becomes a dangerous and unhealthy place.
In order to limit Snapchat’s negative effects, people need to recognize some ways to use the app in more beneficial ways. Snapchat gives people the ability to set daily time limits on the app, a way to ensure you’re not overusing it. You could also try turning off notifications, or working on finding other hobbies to keep yourself busy. By becoming more aware of how prevalent Snapchat is in our lives and the effects it has on our relationships, we can better control our online behavior and begin to prioritize our real, meaningful relationships rather than digital validation.
