Snapchat is one the world’s most popular social media apps, and I know no one wants to be this idiot, but here goes: Snapchat is ridiculous and stressful.
This is such a trivial opinion to many of you, but it’s something that is so bothersome to me that I feel the need to waste a URL on it.
The old days of “Snap” were great. I could send stupid photos of myself to my friends and know they would disappear after so many seconds as long as they didn’t have their hands in the screenshot position. I would snap my face with many chins to anyone and everyone. Then Snapchat added stories. That was cool at first, but then one of my Snapchat friends put a dozen snaps of a dog on it in one day, and I was then sick of stories. Then face filters, you know the rest. It’s all just too much. The new features are great at first, but they lose their luster because people don’t value things for long periods of time — looking at you, millennials.
Then you have the nonsense of a “Snapstreak.” Basically the most meaningless commitment that means all too much, it’s just a small number of how many days in a row you have snapped the other person. But for whatever reason, it’s incredibly important to maintain a streak no matter what. The anxiety induced by the hourglass emoji popping up next to someone’s name to indicate that you have an hour left to continue the streak is equal to the amount of anxiety created when your calculator dies halfway through the math portion of the ACT.
I am on my longest streak of all time at an impressive 26 days. My younger sisters have had streaks for more than two years. My sisters left for a cruise and had their friends sign into their Snapchat accounts to continue their streaks with all of their friends — I am hardly that committed to finishing a book. I guess I am getting old. Maybe I’m lame, or maybe I should finally get around to finishing a book. But one thing is for sure: I need to make sure this streak hits 27 days. Not because I want to but to avoid the anxiety of losing it.
Cheers to anxiety-induced commitment.
Chuck Greenlee is a junior studying communication studies at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to add Chuck on Snapchat and stress him out? Let Chuck know by tweeting him @chuck_greenlee.
