A quick story from a thought I had the other day: I have not used Snapchat since May of this year. I remember when I heard about Snapchat for the very first time probably in 2014, there were many pictures on Instagram or ifunny with the iconic circle time slot on the top left of the screen, as well as the transparent black text box.

At a certain point I was pressured by friends to finally download the app into my phone during the summer of my senior year in high school (so about mid 2015). Upon first impression I did not think much of the app, I only had my group of friends added and our snap stories were just us hanging out, so I did not really need to look at the app all that much. Remember this was when the application was still very minimal with less features.

There were no advertisements, only five filters maybe, no group chats, ten second duration for one picture, only real time pictures (no screenshots could be posted), trophies, or bitmojis. And even then… Snapchat was the biggest app of it’s time. Safe to say they invented the story feature which are now on Instagram and Facebook. But back then Snapchat served a purpose. The idea of real time posts with a 24 hour lifespan seemed a bit odd (at least compared to Instagram which is what the majority of students used).

However, others quickly picked up that Snapchat was a perfect way to connect with people through direct messaging since you can spot what someone is doing at a certain time, in a particular location. I made quite a few friends during that year just by messaging or letting myself be known through my activities on my story. People would be able to know what music you are into, your interests, hobbies, and capture a moment when you were feeling a certain way.

Mainly I just remember people ranting on snap about their life problems typically at the wee hours of night. Anyways, snap created this useful tool that if you posted a snap at, for instance say the mall, someone else would see that and message you, “Hey I’m not doing anything now, cool if join you?” or something in that matter to initiate unexpected gatherings.

Other times, just simply posting a picture on your story can indicate you are active on your phone and willing to message somebody else. Simple things like that would get the ball rolling, and eliminate the awkwardness of well...socializing interestingly enough.

After graduation, I would find myself being hooked on the app constantly. Not posting a snap in a day would be the equivalent of me being non-existent for that whole day in the eyes of my followers.

As if I was locked up in a place with no technology. The thought of this made me pretty aware that I was on a day-to-day basis sending pictures, or videos that were frankly not worthy of sharing.

For instance, one of the most unimportant, irrelevant, insignificant, and meaningless actions that became a trend was snap-streaks.

A little fire emoji would pop up next to the name of your contact if you and that person would share a picture at least once a day for the next three days.

A number would increase accompanying the number of days that you continue to share pictures. At first, it was a cool concept, it made it possible to see who you spent the most time texting and sharing pictures with. However, over time the snap-streaks became sort of a chore, enunciated by pictures of darkness with the caption ‘streaks’ just to fill that one a day picture requirement to continue the streak.

I cannot even count how many people I know that would send pictures just to continue a streak going on for at least a year.

Is that not ridiculous? Imagine texting the same person every single day for a whole year without receiving anything in return, it’s kind of psychotic. There’s no such thing as a snap-streak leaderboard.

I would even hear about when people left for vacation to a place with no wifi, and they would ask me or others to log into their account to continue their snap-streaks.

Excuse me? What’s the goal here? There is no definitive way streaks measure the level of friendship or love you and another person have.

Aside from that the real reason I had to mostly abandon Snapchat was because of the fraud that Snapchat would create.

Many times you will hear that the reason why people have social media is not to network with others, but to boast about your lifestyle. For instance if I took the day off on a Monday and went to the beach to enjoy the sun, meanwhile all my fellow followers are in school and posted it all over social media, in a very loose form it’s like me telling you “Look at how much better my life is right now compared to yours”.

This is what Snapchat became to me.

Not because I felt left out of what others were doing but because I could see that others would ‘appear’ on camera versus reality. I remember being at a party at my friend's attic when I noticed our group seemed distinctly divided. On one corner, would be the guys actually having a decent time, talking, joking around, and acting foolish… and on the other was the group just hitting record. People who feel the need to record others acting sporadically to give the impression that they are enjoying themselves at the function as much as they are.

Usually at a party, if you are immersed in the conversation or activity, there's little time to pull out a phone to record just ten seconds. So if you have a snap story well over thirty minutes, it’s clear you were just there to watch others have fun and not be part of a group activity. Not only did this group of people decide not to participate but lie to others that they really are interacting.

So I came to the realization that I would be a hypocrite if I judged someone else's action if I do it myself. Honestly, we all tend to add some level of ‘hype’ to our pictures to make them exciting and tell others ‘hey! My life is not as boring as you think!’

So I'll post a picture with a hundred laughing emojis and filters with loud music to imply excitement, even if I'm really just washing my clothes at the laundromat.

Uninstalling Snapchat at the beginning was dreadful, it’s only until then that you realize you had this unhealthy addiction to your phone sadly.

I’d prefer only my closest friends to be aware of my daily activities and not to all my followers in my Snapchat contacts.

The filters, I can live without. But I will say I have missed out on some major updates. The ability to record for longer than ten seconds was a good addition, and having an infinite time for a picture. The hundreds of filters/face swaps/dancing hot dogs Snapchat has produced since I have never seen. Oddly enough, I feel better off with just managing my Instagram where I post once every month or so as opposed to everyday.

And I’m really glad I missed out on the Bitmoji location finder, whatever it’s called. You can download Snapchat to figure out where your friends are located everytime they open the app. Honestly, even though I stopped using Snapchat a while ago, I understand why so many people like the app, and my experiences differ from others.