Living in this generation means living online. Social media has consumed almost every aspect of an average person’s life. Serving as a basis for entertainment, staying informed on current events, or even building a living off it, social media has a major hold on the world nowadays. Many platforms like Instagram and TikTok are known for having a true purpose, whether it’s influencing others, building a community, or even creativity, each app widely contributes to our online and in person community today. But then there’s Snapchat— which to me is the most useless app of all.
Starting from 2011 up until now, Snapchat has grown to become the main form of communication amongst most teenagers, and yet I wonder “Why?” Whether you have an iPhone or an android, each device is programmed with an efficient messaging app allowing people to communicate with their friends and family. Like Snapchat, both even allow us to send voice notes, videos, and even video calls to one another, making them equally (if not more) valuable as Snapchat. Despite the thrill of different filters, it’s pointless to make a new app when a perfectly practical (and frequently used) one already exists.
When I first downloaded Snapchat, the concept of disappearing messages was new and interesting but after spending time with this feature it has become impractical. Though disappearing messages is a clever way to ensure privacy, this concept also brings frustration as there is no recollection of anything you have chattered 24 hours after that conversation. No matter if it’s scrolling through past messages for nostalgia or relevant information, disappearing messages make communication through Snapchat unreliable and irritating, as you have no memory of previous conversations. The resulting miscommunication and lack of clarity steer Snapchat away from its original purpose— those very problems.
Another reason why Snapchat is the social media app that lacks the most purpose is people prioritize having streaks over actual connections. Snapchat has a unique feature called “streaks,” which helps keep track of the number of consecutive days two people have “snapped” each other. While the idea of seeing the fire emoji light up beside the growing number of streaks may seem fun at first, as the streak continues ascending, the less meaningful the connection between people becomes. Over time, people tend to focus more on maintaining their streak number and focus less on sustaining the relationship between one another. This defeats the point of creating a more intimate social media app if people are barely striving to talk/text each other.
As if streaks weren’t enough, Snapchat continues the shallow ideas by making a short-video attribute to Snapchat called, “Spotlight”. Spotlight allows snapchat users to create short entertaining videos to share amongst their friends and more. Now, if this idea sounds familiar it’s likely because you’ve heard it before, just as a different (more relevant) name- TikTok. Snapchat’s spotlight is very similar if not exactly like TikTok, as they have the same concept as well as parallel content. Creating spotlight during the peak of TikTok led to the neglect of Spotlight, representing how meaningless and overused the idea became when put in the same spectrum as its admired competition.
Though it’s still used today, Snapchat has lost its spark. The unoriginality and impractical features it implements from other mainstream apps, makes it seem like a copy of any other app—just with more filters and less purpose to it.
