Snapchat

Whatever, your parades are lame anyways.

But about Snapchat. A while back you and I were talking about Snapchat. I had just come back to the social media after a nearly six month hiatus and was talking about how I thought I was probably right to have left. You then, naturally, put me in the awkward position of defending a social media I had decided to leave. You said that Snapchat is an inherently shallow way of communication. Now, while I have my problems with Snapchat, that is not one of them.

Snapchat, while often used for shallow communication, was not designed to be used that way. Instead, I think Snapchat was designed, and has the potential to be used, as one of the most intimate forms of electronic communication yet to be developed.

I think part of the confusion of Snapchat is its function. I've noticed that older generations 'don't get the point' or 'can't understand why you need to send selfies all day'. Well, I don't think people ought to send selfies all day, but, at least in my eyes, Snapchat isn't about that. Snapchat is about gifting friends pictures, videos, chats, etc. and hoping they will return the favor, it's about creating a more intimate connection than the cold hard text which exists in other social medias and messaging platforms, and it's about demonstrating effort to personally attend to friends you care about. 

'Group Snaps', and 'Story Snaps' are looked down upon because they violate the natural intimacy of Snapchat. 'Streaks' and 'best friend' emojis, on the other hand, are positive, they contribute to the intimacy and demonstrate that someone cares enough to talk to you a lot or every day, even if that "talking" is just a smile.

Ultimately, I just cannot agree that Snapchat is a bad social media platform. Instead, I applaud it for encouraging intimate connections (something other online platforms have completely failed to do), neatly avoiding the scare of the internet's tendency to be permanent and intimidating, and for connecting me to friends I might not otherwise talk to as much.  

There are certainly things wrong with the platform but when used responsibly, in moderation, and with people you care about I think Snapchat is one of the best social medias. 

I left Snapchat because it was a distraction for me, because I became bored with routine snapping, because people don't understand that stories are not supposed to be four hour events, and because it was killing my phone battery. I left because I was doing it wrong, not because the platform wasn't one of the most innovative, fun, and interesting things to pop up online recently. Yes, Snapchat is frequently used incorrectly and is easy to be abused but so is sugar and sugar is good as hell.

:)