Snapchat, what it is and why you should avoid it, if possible!

Interestingly enough, it feels like the entire young world (Generation Z) has some sort of social media. This is especially the case in colleges and universities. It's almost like a must-have way of communicating. 

Informative: For those that don't have Snapchat or aren't familiar with the app, it is basically "picture texts". A user communicates with another user by sending a picture with words as a caption. Various filters can be applied to the picture and games can even be played using the app in which both parties take turns in the game and send it back and forth. The app is simple to use, as long as you don't go around clicking all over the place. Snapchat has a direct message function as well, for those that aren't feeling photogenic. You can customize an avatar (I refused to do this) and these "Bitmoji's" represent the person's actual appearance if they choose to make it that way. Facebook has recently adopted the concept of "stories", this is also present on Instagram, in which a user can include a 24hr "story", either a picture or video, that will be deleted automatically after the 24 hours is over. You can have multiple stories as well as, story videos. Snapchat also has "news" or popular stories from users and official outlets that are meant as entertainment for users to stay longer on the app. Snapchat includes a map called "snap maps" that essentially allows you to check the location of other users as long as you are Snapchat friends with them. You don't have to reveal your location (I didn't), but if you are okay with being stalked by friends, then you have the option. A useful feature Snapchat includes is backing up your stories and photos to your phone camera roll, this makes it easier to share photos and videos to other apps. Snapchat saves photos separately, but you can link it to your phone. Conversations between users also cause a streak to begin, this is a genius way for users to always have to use the app because they don't want the streak to end. The higher the streak goes up, certain emojis begin to appear next to the user's username. The streak tends to break if the user takes longer than 24hrs to reply, this is identified by an hourglass spinning on the user's username. If enough time has passed, the streak number disappears from the user that normally received communication. A snap score is also given to the user, it is dependent on how many snaps they send over time. Two final concepts used in Snapchat are group chats and private stories. Group chats are a great way to communicate with friends and make plans for beach trips, etc. or for roommates in a house. Private stories are settings to the stories that allow them to be shown to certain people. Overall, Snapchat is a good app to have in college to stay in contact with friends and maintain a solid social network while updating others of your life. 

Reality: Don't get me wrong, Snapchat is a good app to advertise your life and check in with friends instead of plain old texting, but the app can become a chore. First off, the concept of a streak is the most annoying part about Snapchat, well that, and the fact that the towers are always down when you try to refresh the app to see if your crush snapped you back. Imagine snapping a friend for two days straight, boom a streak number next to the fire emoji popped up. At first, it's all good, you think its sweet, so you continue snapping them for a week. Then one day you forget and the streak dies, your friend quickly texts you and begins complaining about how you broke the streak and now you're arguing...thanks Snapchat. Streaks are too much of a chore, every single day you have to remember to send at least one snap. There are people who don't even communicate with their parents every day, how do you expect someone to communicate with a friend every day. But it gets worse, once you have a streak that goes above 50, you're stuck, what is your excuse to not spend 5 minutes of your day, every single day, sending a pic with some text back? I haven't figured it out either. Second, when it comes to sending and receiving messages, similar to text, you can leave the message on open. I can't express enough how many problems this has caused for so many people. I believe it could potentially break up relationships. Being left on open is the worst, no one wants to be left on open because a billion thoughts come to mind. "Maybe they're busy, maybe they don't want to talk to me, maybe they don't like me anymore" and just like that, you're paranoid. Beautiful isn't it. Let's take a few minutes and appreciate the fact that stories are just an Instagram way of flexing your life and how your beach trip was definitely not "windy and hot as can be, with sand in my shorts, and there's a family with a baby crying next to us..." Stories are a lie, sort of, sure you can use stories to show where you are, what you are doing, and even advertise something, but for the college kids on weekends, it's flooded with girls taking group pics in the mirror dressed up in their "going out" outfits, and what parties they ended up at. This is also the case for guys, but fewer mirrors and they try to look cooler because the party they put on their Snapchat story is life or death for them, which frat are they in? How did they get in? neat huh. Personally, I found Snapchat to be interesting, but a combination of all three of these "useful" Snapchat features and you'll lose your mind. 

My advice: If you're still in college or at a university, take a break from Snapchat during the summer, nobody cares that you're visiting family and that you left the state, or that you went down to Daytona, because newsflash, so did they. It's important to be productive during summers and I personally see the app as a waste of time, there are shows to binge, friends to actually hang out with, and jobs to apply to. Who knows, maybe you'll even start a blog...

You're welcome

Expressed by: Oscar Mendieta