Ah, the wonderful craze that is Snapchat. Almost everyone you know and meet these days, you can count on having one. You can flirt. You can send horrific, ugly pictures to friends that will later end up on some other form of social media. You can draw stuff on other stuff in every color! You can take videos. Use filters. You can enlarge Santa Claus emojis and place them directly over your face when you’re feeling too ugly. The possibilities are truly endless. And most of all, you can story!
Yes, the wonderful feature of the “MyStory” is what I will be focusing on today. I am here to put my two cents into the Snapchat Story Etiquette. Let me start off by telling you the most basic rule of Snapchat Story Ettiquette: there is no Snapchat Story Ettiquette. There, I said it. Someone had to.
There is, for some reason, a notion that people frequently buy into that there are specific “rules” to what is acceptable to post on a Snapchat Story. If you break these rules, you are automatically an incredibly annoying, attention seeking, psycho that has no filter or common sense.
No concert snaps; no one cares about a blurry dark video. No pictures of your dog/cat; it looks the same every day and it’s not even that cute of a dog/cat. No selfies; you’re conceded and looking for compliments. No nature snaps; they’re lame and never look as cool in a picture. No pictures/videos of you and your friends out having fun; you’re clearly not actually having fun and just trying to show everyone you are. No snaps singing to music -- in the car, in the bar, wherever you are -- they’re annoying and we’d much rather just listen to the regular artist sing the stupid song. No generic pictures of what you’re doing at the moment such as working, homework, Netflix, etc; your life is stupid and boring and no one cares. No snaps of alcohol because you’re clearly just trying to prove to everyone how cool and fun you are. Above all, never, and I mean NEVER make your story above 100 seconds. For obvious reasons.
……Hmmm, well what the heck are we allowed to story then?!
Basically what I’m getting at is that whether your story is 10 seconds or 300 seconds, people are going to be a**holes about it. There’s no perfect story. This “criteria” has been created by the snappers of the world that think that they are the only ones who know what is right and what is wrong to post. You’re not the judge of what is story worthy. No one is. So that needs to stop.
Let’s be honest: we’re all guilty of thinking something’s funny when it’s not. Sharing stuff with the world that other’s may not give a rat’s a** about. Having one too many while out and posting that regrettable video (or ten) of you dancing on a table to Taylor Swift or "Trap Queen." (Three cheers for pop culture references.)
It’s just like any other social media; you can choose what you post and whom to follow (or not follow!!) and that’s the beauty of it. We post what we want to post when we want to put something out into the world, and we really, truly, seriously should not have to justify it any further than that.
And unlike Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, with Snapchat you don’t even have to see someone’s story if you don’t want to. You don't even have to be friends with someone if you don't want to. So quit your belly-achin’.
It’s as simple as this: every time you make a judgment about what someone posts to their story, someone could be thinking the exact same thing about yours (or lack thereof). Everyone has a different idea of what is acceptable. None of us are perfect, and it’s time that we all start recognizing that we’re all allowed to post whatever we damn please, whenever we damn please. And yes, this is a poorly attempted metaphor comparing Snapchat to life, if you were wondering.
Story what you want. Have fun while doing it. Make it your own. Stop caring so much about what people think. And for God’s sake, DON’T be a judgmental jerk about things that don’t even matter -- does that really not go without saying??
So, to those of you who don’t like my stories:
Snap away, my friends.
