On Wednesday, June 28th, my friend Ashley and I passed the two-year mark on our Snapchat streak. For those who don't know, Snapchat is a social media platform where users send videos, pictures, and messages back and forth with the 'chats' typically disappearing after a set amount of time. A Snapchat streak (or snap streak) is when both parties consecutively snap to each other at least once a day consecutively over the course of multiple days. In our case, over 730 snaps and counting.

What's most exciting about this milestone for me is that she and I have never met in person— I live in Minnesota while she lives in Michigan. Our friendship is the by-product of social media and the internet. We met around five to six years ago on the social blogging site, Tumblr. I can't remember the exact specifics of the initial conversation, but I know it surrounded an anime we were both fans of at the time.

We started talking about it, realized we were two nerdy peas in a pod and decided to make the leap to more direct forms of communication. Facebook, Skype, texting, and calling, eventually making our way to Snapchat. These days, we almost exclusively communicate through Snapchat.

It's something I like to brag about, much to the chagrin of whoever is unfortunate enough to be privy to my smug mug. I get it though. Who really cares? What's the big deal about some silly snap streak? Can we really be having meaningful conversations on the internet? Can you even really consider it a true friendship if you've never met? What the hell is Snapchat? You millennials and your Facechat and Snapbooks!

Yeah. It's a little silly. Most of our conversations are equally silly. A typical day involves sending pictures and videos back and forth of our pets because let's face it: we have nothing better to send each other (sorry Ash). Sometimes, we talk about an anime we just watched or troubles at the workplace but that's precisely what makes it so special!

We've been able to grow to a point where we can have daily, mundane, trivial conversations like age-old friends normally would, and we've never even met. We also have our fair share of deeper, honest talks as well. In a way, it almost feels like we're two people sitting on a couch and hanging out— except the couch is 700 miles long.

In a day and age where social media receives more and more criticism each day, my small anecdotal experience stands as an important reminder that while there are certainly things to be wary of when utilizing any media platform, they can also connect people in a way that wasn't possible before. Without this digital relationship, I wouldn't have one of my most trusted friends. In fact, without the internet, I wouldn't have met a lot of people I now consider friends.