No, this is not me judging everyone who uses Snapchat. This is me voicing my concerns for our generation’s future and how our communication skills may be suffering as a consequence of the convenience of Snapchat.

Snapchat is literally everywhere you go today. Every town has its own geofilter, people are constantly talking about their streaks and “selfie game”, and most people add those they meet on snapchat before they even exchange phone numbers. To a lot of people, especially our parents, it may seem like snapchat is taking over the world of mobile communication, and in a way they would be right.

As much as I love being able to communicate with friends by picture (meaning that I don’t actually have to come up with anything to say), there is definitely a problem with the way our generation is communicating. By allowing ourselves to communicate with facial expressions instead of words or even speaking, we are, in the end, hurting ourselves. We lack the social skills of generations before us because we do not socialize anymore, at least not correctly.

Social skills are key in job interviews, friendships, forming relationships, and definitely in being a college student. So many people I know are afraid of talking on the phone or speaking to someone in public. We are so used to hiding behind our cracked screens and dog filters that we don’t even know how to communicate with our peers.

You thought there were some scary Snapchat filters, but this is even scarier. It is terrifying that people get so worked up and invested in the lengths of their streaks, and I used to be one of those people. Even today I get excited to see those numbers go up every morning. Yes, it is nice to see how close you are with someone through a little number of how many days you have snapped consecutively, but the end of a streak does not have to be the end of the world. All too often I see friends getting mad at each other for losing the streak for one reason or another. Life happens. There are more important things in someone’s life than remembering to snap their friend back. There’s always a new streak to be started anyways.

Personally, I love snapchat. I enjoy being able to share images of my day with friends who don’t get to experience the same thongs, especially my friends from high school that are at different colleges. I see this as one of the positives of being able to use Snapchat, and don’t get me wrong, there definitely are a lot of positives to the use of this app. I see a lot of friends putting information about events being held by clubs or organizations they belong to on their stories to get the word out. Snapchat is a great way to spread information relatively easily and quickly.

I think Snapchat is a wonderful tool being used by young people today. It is quick and easy communication, and it’s free as long as you have internet. Though this app is one even I frequently use, I will continue being afraid of what its continued overuse could do for the social skills of people as a whole. Be mindful of just how many of your social interactions are occurring through a screen rather than face-to-face with the people you really love.