There was a time period (not too long ago,) when the majority of my phone’s battery life was consumed by a single application, one that I, like many others in my generations, could be blamed for using almost constantly. Snapchat, though I never realized it, was an indispensable part of everyone’s lives. It turned each day into a new story and any picturesque moment into that day’s “streak” snap, and grown to be almost a reflex for me.
The process of “breaking up” with Snapchat was gradual, but at one point in my life, I think it would’ve seemed like an impossible task. Over a year ago, I was a very different type of user. I maintained and almost cherished my seemingly never-ending list of streaks, never forgetting to send a daily snap to my friends, acquaintances, and yes, people I barely knew. No matter how busy life got or how stressful, whether through AP season or being on vacation in Europe, somehow I managed to send snaps back and forth with over 60 people at some point. My camera roll was full of repeats... the same picture with three different built-in Snapchat filters and otherwise beautiful shots of things were ruined with the line of text overlayed on top of them. I was, in many ways, “that person.” The one who literally “Snapchats everything.”
Fast forward to more recent times, a devastating update to the interface and change in algorithm was the first step towards Snapchat’s loss of value in my life. I’m not an opponent of change, but the application seemed less functional when it became so much more advertisement-centered and less about the people I actually knew. That’s another aspect. As my contact list burgeoned with people I’d really only met once or twice and barely knew, yet Snapchat’s algorithm seemed to predict that I’d be dying to see their story content. I eventually also realized the futility of streaks as some of my longest ones “broke."
A black screen being sent back and forth for an ascribed number of days means absolutely nothing about a friendship. In fact, snaps, in general, came off as increasingly impersonal to me. Despite this, I still found myself using the application a lot, lost in the black hole of the Discover page and watching recommended stories that the algorithm was actually right about me actually appreciating while trying to procrastinate from studying. At some point, I realized I could do what I would’ve previously considered unthinkable. I could delete Snapchat altogether.
And so I did. It’s been nearly a month since the ghost logo has hailed my phone, and I’ve learned a great deal about myself, and about social media in the process.
At first, I almost instinctively searched for the application anytime I wanted to take a picture of something, which I noticed was pretty darn often. How did my mind end up geared to want to photograph the sunrise or document an image of a pretty cupcake, and then share it on my story for 300 people to see? It took a great deal of self-reflection to slowly focus more on enjoying the moment at hand rather than capturing it from the right angle to make it seem like I was enjoying the moment for people I barely knew to witness. I have 28,000 pictures on my phone, and I can’t help but wonder how many are from moments that I should’ve been more focused on experiencing than capturing. The last night of my freshman year of college, right after my last final, I reconsidered re-downloading Snapchat, but rather decided against it. It was quite a memorable night, and my only pictures from it are of the sunrise we stayed up to watch from the balcony of the Honors College, something I consider an accomplishment. I guess I appreciated my newfound freedom from not being some type of deranged picto-historian. It’s something one can get used to.
I also noticed that, after the initial shock of feeling disconnected from the world, the FOMO, or fear-of-missing-out, really disappears. It’s not something I would say I experienced much to begin with, but without the carefully staged glimpses of people’s seemingly perfect lives to peruse through, it’s so much easier to remain anchored to reality. The truth about social media, even something that seems as real and in the moment as Snapchat (and definitely less photoshopped or fake than other outlets), is that people only really show you what they want you to see.
When you aren’t given what is essentially a collection of photos they’ve decided to broadcast publically for 24 hours at a time, it’s actually easier to make your own judgments about a person or situation, without the sugar-coated context of what you’d seen prior. With that said, during a particularly low point, I found myself resorting to LinkedIn as a way to procrastinate, and have to admit, a different iteration of the same old FOMO did pop up.
When something reminds me of someone, I actually have to decide if I’m going to go through the trouble to take the picture, and actually text them. For some reason, actually texting people seems so much more real and serious. Perhaps that’s just because I’m a notoriously bad texter, sometimes responding to messages literally weeks later, but it’s also something I’m trying to change. Interactions are marginally harder, but so much more meaningful because of that. Soon enough, I hope to bring my lead times down to one to two days, if not less, and see what happens going forward. All I know is that I won’t have filtered pictures to prove it, and perhaps, that’s not such a terrible thing.