I'll be the first one to admit that even though this article is about why I hate the popular app, I am a frequent user of Snapchat. Every now and then (more like everyday), I feel like what's in front of me is important enough for all of my "friends" on the app to see, so i'll snap a pic and post it on My Story. But is it really important? Is that plate of sushi i'm about to eat really important enough for everyone to know i'm eating sushi? Is this cup of Starbucks i'm about to down in two sips really important enough to post so everyone can see I like to pay five dollars for a cup of coffee? If you ask me, it's not. It's not important at all. The more I examine the app, the more pointless I find it, and it's another reason we are why we are now.
One of the things that I really hate about this app is when people use it as their way of "communicating." Let me make this clear: Snapchat is not a form of communication. It's just not. Nothing makes me more mad than when someone snapchats me and tries to use it as their way of having a conversation with me. Especially when it's guys. There have been guys in the past, guy friends and guys I was interested in, that would send me pictures of just them, no caption or anything, just their face. They would wait all day until it reached somewhere between 6-8 and I would get a snapchat of just them either sitting in their car or somewhere else. Is that your way of saying "hey"? There is such a thing as texting or calling someone to ask them how their day was or to talk to them that doesn't involve pictures with captions. Most of the time, i'm either too busy to stop and take a picture or i'm not looking my best to take a picture.
Which brings me to my next point, I always feel like I have to look "my best" when someone snapchats me. I'm already an extremely self-conscious person and this app makes it ten times worse. Almost every time I snap someone, I feel like I have to use a filter to look better. I can't even count how many times i've spent holding the phone up, just trying to get the "perfect angle" before I take the picture. Then after the ten minutes it takes me to take a picture that I feel like is decent enough, I look at it and think "wow I am hideous" and I will use a filter that either "perfects" me or use one of those crazy filters that hides your face. I've also had those moments where someone will send me a snapchat and I won't reply because no matter what I do to look better, I feel like i'm still too ugly to snapchat at the moment. There's also been times where i'll get in bed, makeup free, and someone snapchats me. What do I do? Get up out of bed and put makeup back on just to send a picture to "talk" to someone. Isn't that sad?
It's also very distracting and can be dangerous. I know i'm guilty of this, but a lot of times when I go to view the stories on my feed, there's videos of people in the car while driving either talking and taking a video of the song on the radio. How many times have you seen those videos or pictures of the speed limit someone is going because they're behind a slow driver? It can be very dangerous and that can cause a wreck.
The app is also used as some sort of "proof" that people use to make sure people see where's they're at, what they're doing, or what they got. There's always those long snapchats of people at concerts (me when Carrie Underwood came to town). Let me tell you a quick story: one night, I went to see Brett Eldredge in concert and it was the first concert i've been too where I was right at the stage. He had his moments where he would walk from end to end and of course there were videos on snapchat to prove how close I was to him. When it came time for him to sing his last song (Don't Ya) I was recording the moment he came over to my side of the stage on snapchat. When Brett came to my my side and was right in front of me, he bent down and took my phone onstage because he thought I was recording a video. What could've been an awesome video of Brett holding my phone while seeing and recording it, is a blurry video of Brett going to grab my phone and the video stopping once it's out of my hand. I am still upset over this... obviously.
Like i've said before, i'm guilty of all the things I wrote about... which makes this article seem contradicting. I understand that the app was meant for fun and entertainment but I feel like in today's world, we are so connected to our phones and are not seeing the issues behind these things. Will I still use snapchat after writing this? Probably. This is just the way I view certain things about the app. I really think we should step back and look at the way it's being used sometimes. Let's not forget that actual conversations are had face-to-face, an app shouldn't make someone feel more self-conscious about oneself, and how distracting it can be.
