Snapchat: One of the most frequently used apps in our day to day lives. Snapchatting friends, significant others, or just capturing moments. We mindlessly go to click on the yellow icon with the cute white ghost.

This is all fun and games until you see the “Hourglass TIMER” appear - the most dreaded emoji of the 21st century. This alerts you that the Snap-Streak you have is about to die. The timer appears after 20 hours of not Snapchatting with the person you have a Snap-Streak with.

But wait, does this signify that the friendship (or snapship) is officially over? Maybe it Is just a lazy day on Snapchat? Anyway, you view it, Snapchat is distorting our lives in more than one way. Friendships and relationships can start and end with our favorite app.

When Snapchat began, it was known as an app to send scandalous pictures sneakily to one another for a limited amount of time. But, as the years went by Snapchat continued to develop and it became much more than that. Scandalous pictures turned into ugly selfies and endless stories of your days and nights that can be viewed for only 24 hours and then disappear.

Then, the Snapchat-Streak came into play. After three days of continuously snapping, the fire emoji appears, which means the streak has officially begun. In other words, “It’s on!”

But what does a Snapchat- Streak actually mean?

A Snapchat-Streak means a lot in our world today, or does it? When the streak begins to form, a friendship begins. Although you could be “Snapping” a person for two hundred days, does that truly mean you are friends? Are you actually talking? One may think yes, but in reality most of the time it doesn’t mean that.

Rather, it is just a back and forth of pictures with no real meaning. Although, if you and a good friend, or even a significant other, happen to have a Snapchat-Streak going and the hourglass timer appears, does that mean the relationship is officially over? Are you and the cute guy you’ve been continuously snapping for three months now done snapping? Done talking?

Or are you frantically texting the person you have had a streak with that the hourglass timer has appeared, and you need him or her to respond to keep the streak? People have even gone so far to actually contact Snapchat when their streaks die to try and get them back. The “Snapchat Streak” has become a part of our everyday lives, making our true human connections more scarce. It is so easy to hide behind our phones and use them to interact with others.

One may begin to ponder...after snapping someone for a given amount of time, and you run into them in person, are you really friends? Sometimes the answer is no. It can be awkward to the point where you do not know how to act or what even to say, although you continue to Snapchat each other. Then you take a closer look and realize they do not have a tiny black nose with whiskers and large floppy fur ears - hold on wait, what?! I need to Snapchat this...