Oh Snapchat, the entertainment you’ve provided us throughout the years, with your nonsense filters, and your faceswaping capabilities, you’ve allowed us to connect with the world, 10 seconds at a time. But maybe that’s your true appeal, the fact that your content disappears after 10 short seconds, seemingly to be seen again.
Along with your cousin, Yik Yak, you have effectively ruined a generation, so congratulations.
In today’s world, if you have a smart phone, you more than likely have Snapchat. You’ve more than likely sent the puppy filter to all your friends, and received one or two Coachella filters back. Each of those messages are alive for 10 seconds, and then they disappear, unless someone, God forbid, takes a screenshot.
Because of this 10 second world we are living in, we do and say things we wouldn’t do or say in person. I’m guilty of it too, don’t get me wrong, this 10 seconds and then gone, has turned us into monsters. We lash insults at one another, send terrible pictures of other people to our friends, and expose ourselves in ways beyond decency. All because we have developed this mindset that “it disappears after 10 seconds, so it doesn’t matter”. But the truth is, it DOES matter. Just because those hurtful words or terrible picture you sent disappears after 10 seconds, doesn’t mean the way you made the person feel disappears after 10 seconds. No, those effects last much, much longer.
Snapchat has created a generation that has lost its filter (no pun intended I promise). We say things to people’s faces that we truly don’t mean because we’re used to the words disappearing after 10 seconds. We unfriend people from snapchat when we are mad at them, we passively aggressively send only words when we want another person to know we’re upset. Snapchat his helped form a generation that is becoming less and less able to deal with negative social situations, when truth be told, if we put our phones down for a little bit, we could solve a lot.
While Snapchat is great for connecting us to people all over, it’s changing how we communicate. Any more, people are more worried about keeping their snapchat streak with their friend, rather than sitting down with that friend and having a meaningful conversation void of filters and emojis. Sure a conversation is going to last more than 10 seconds, but chances are, you might learn something important about somebody, other than their favorite filter.
So I challenge you, as summer is beginning, to close snapchat, get out and enjoy the nice weather, met to have lunch with a friend, and get to know them better. Snapchat, while it is a fun little app, may be doing more damage than it’s worth. Go have conversation longer than 10 seconds.
