I’m not saying love letters are realistic anymore. I don’t think people have really taken the time to write out their thoughts, feelings or even mainly communicate through the written word since what seems like colonial times. However, I am saying that what this current generation’s idea of a romantic encounter is anything but. I hate to burst our bubbles, but just because you have a Snapchat streak with that special someone, doesn’t mean you really know them, at least not in the meaningful way you might be looking for.
Snapchat has taken over today's adolescents and has become an integral form of communication not only with your friends but with your potential, “love” interests. We rely on the comfort of hiding behind our selfie cameras and the infinite number of times we can attempt to take a picture until we find it attractive enough to send to whoever is on the receiving end of it. The credibility of a relationship and its legitimateness is no longer based on how often you converse with someone but can now be based on how many days you’ve been sending a simple picture of your face back and forth.
I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this. I find myself Snapchatting like a majority of my friends and getting excited if a certain someone snaps me back. I have, “streaks” and still seem to send meaningless pictures of my face or the ground with no words attached and no conversation ever occur. Why do I do this? What makes me think that just because I Snapchat a boy that suddenly I’m friends with him or it makes it, “acceptable” for me to start talking to him in real life and not just through my phone screen.
It all goes back to comfort. We play it safe with our technology. It’s easier to be bolder and initiate flirting via your phone rather than facing the risk of rejection face to face. We see it as easier to be rejected or turned away when we’re not in person, where we can easily choose not reply or quickly move onto the next snap. We don’t like the idea of rejection, especially when we would have to deal with it right when it happens and not be able to hide behind our screens.
Once again, I’m not trying to tell you that in order to have a real relationship you have to pour your heart out to a person and deliver your personally addressed letter via carrier pigeon. No, you can still get to know someone over your phone, but if you’re mainly relying on the length of your Snapchat streak to prove the depth of your connection with someone, then you might want to try to set the phone down and see If that connection still feels comfortable face to face. Be bold and ask them out and try and actual conversation because that kind of relationship will probably last longer than any streak could.
