Snapchat. An app among the masses on your cellular device, or iPad if you're 12. Designed for the purpose of sending nudes enabling users to send one to 10-second pictures and videos with a caption and almost always a filter. No ill intentions here, just another social media outlet to keep up with your friends, or peasants if you're famous. Obviously it's a great idea, with a following of nearly 80 million users who enjoy busting out a camera at every given opportunity, and not so relevant times that you inevitably tap through.
On a given week day that I post to My Story — similar to a Facebook timeline if you will, of pictures — it's more than likely pictures of my dogs doing something adorable, that I figure almost everyone I'm friends with obviously needs to see. From Friday to Sunday it's more often than not me picking up a friend from a shacker's house and embarrassing them, or the post-1:00 a.m. video scan of the bar I'm at, to let people know I'm having such a good time that I need to show them (I've noticed when I'm actually having a superb time I don't find it necessary to live out the moment behind the screen of my iPhone).
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Sounds like a fun, harmless app, right? Wrong. You see, Snapchat has these features, like emojis next to who you've snapped most often, also known as your "best friends" as far as the app can tell. Before it ruined relationships it had a feature where if you tapped on a person's name it would show you the top 5 people they most frequently sent snaps to, if you were in a relationship and you weren't your bae's most-snapped person, everyone was judging your relationship. But shady boys and side girls rejoiced when the app took that feature away leaving girls and guys to guess if their relationship was solid or one notification away from destruction. Which — long story short — leads me to my main topic: Snapchat lets you see who has watched your picture/video, and when they do so. Say you're "talking" (the social area above friends, and below boyfriend/girlfriend) to someone, and they don't text you back.
You might succumb to Snapchatting them to see what they are up to, most importantly to see if they'll open it, and spend the rest of your day wondering why they didn't reply to your text. (Side note: I know you can't see me, but I'm laughing really hard at the fact I actually would spend all day whining to my friends that someone of my affection didn't reply to a five-second picture.) Here's where we get carried away in an app formulated of pixels and cellular data. Posting a story just for the significance of seeing someone's name pop up along with who recently watched it is not fulfilling. Waiting all damn day for someone to send you a picture of the ground in front of them with a few words on it is meaningless. Hopelessly refreshing the contents of "recent updates" for person-of-interest's video, to hopefully give you some indication of what they're doing for the night without having to, God forbid, summon up the courage and contact them asking what their plans are, for the fear of being rejected or not included.
As millennial's we get away with hiding behind social media and we need to say when enough is enough. When your emotions are involved it's better to not let an app dictate the stature of your relationship with someone.
