Why I Don't Use Snapchat

Yes, I have a snapchat. Do I have it downloaded? No. Do I use it? No.

Weirdest teenager ever, right? Probably.

This isn't a hate post; it's just my personal opinion. If you use Snapchat (which 95% of people do), I'm not judging you or anything. I just want to offer some insight into my thoughts. My ideas will probably sound harsh, but it is only because I am extremely passionate about this topic.

Let's start at the beginning. Snapchat is rated 13+ in the App Store, but even when I was 12, all of my friends had a Snapchat. I wanted one badly, so I approached my mom and asked her if I could make one. She told me to wait until I was 13. I disobeyed her, however. It was the only secret I kept from my mom. One day, the guilt overwhelmed me and I told her that I had, in fact, created a Snapchat (I only used it to talk to my best friend, and I had only used it a couple times). She was happy that I told her and let me keep my Snapchat.

Ever since, I've had a love/hate relationship with the app. But now I've officially settled on the "hate" side. I have, in my short lifetime, wasted so many hours on that pointless app that it is embarrassing to admit. And, in all truthfulness, I am sure that most people my age are way more addicted to it than I ever was. 

I'd go through periods where I'd use it a lot, checking it many times an hour, sending useless pictures of my face, participating in useless conversations, and showcasing a fake side of my life on my "story". Then, I'd delete the app and go cold turkey for a month or more. And repeat. Well, I deleted it about a week ago (I hadn't used it for a month though), and I'm never downloading it again.

There are many reasons for this. I will try to outline them as least offensive as possible, for this post is not intended to be offensive in any way.

1) Snapchat was literally created to enable people to "sext"/send nudes/view porn/etc. I do not want any part in any of these things in any way, so removing myself entirely from the system seems like the smartest thing to do. This behavior doesn't align with my personal ethical and religious beliefs, so I don't want to support a company which enables such activity.

2) It is a huge waste of time. Like hol-y cow. If every person spent the same amount of time reading a book as they did on Snapchat, we'd have a whole ton of smarter people in the universe. The conversations are useless (most people don't have real conversations anyways), whenever a notification goes off (or even if one doesn't go off), people check their phone and then get distracted/waste time replying or surfing others' stories. Honestly, literally everyone in the world can find something better to do with their time. (Again, books! Family time! Exercise!!)

3) Snapchat insanely boosts narcissism. Like, I can handle the occasional selfie (like if you're feeling it or if you are somewhere awesome and can't get someone to take a picture of you) but this constant stream of selfies that snapchat allows? Accompanying almost every word of text that you send everyone? NO thanks. Just a tad self-centered, if you ask me. And those filters? Sure, they're fun, and my little sisters really enjoyed playing with them. But if you use them too often, it starts to alter reality. If it's your profile picture for every social media site, and you post these "snapchat selfies" all over Twitter & Instagram, you're probably taking it a bit overboard. We should be encouraging self-love, not the need for an unrealistic filter in order to accept yourself. My kindness and positivity make me feel more beautiful than any filter can.

4) It's inherently useless. Hello, TEXTING, anyone? How about a phone call? If you want to hang out, or if you thought my outfit was nice today, you can just text me. I don't need a picture of your face with 3 filters on it in order to comprehend what you're saying. The only "useful" thing about it is that the pictures/text disappear - but that only helps if you're sending nudes or gossiping, etc. Plus, you can screenshot on snapchat, and they have a database of every picture ever taken on there, so it isn't really gone. Also, there are texting apps like Dust which will actually delete all records and don't work with screenshots. So, if you're really worried about "privacy", you can find an app that is actually successful for that purpose.

5) The conversations are fake and it discontinues real communication.