Why I Love Snapchat

Many of you who know me well are well aware of my mild disdain for social media (which seems hypocritical since I have Facebook, Twitter, and a blog). This is particularly true for image-heavy fads like Vine, Instagram, and Pintrest. Initially, I found the idea of a "selfie" to be inherently vain and slightly abhorrent.

Then I downloaded Snapchat. Oh, the selfies that ensued...

You Faithful Readers must have heard of Snapchat by now. It's an app that allows you to take fleeting pics or videos, accompany them with a limited amount of text or crude digital paint, and send them to any number of your friends for a designated amount of seconds (1-10). Once time runs out, however -- and herein lies the beauty -- that image or video, innocent or incriminating, is lost forever. Just gone. Period. (Unless your friend(s) displayed quick enough reflexes to capture a screenshot of said Snap.)

My reflexes failed not in capturing this precious Snap of my friend Joel.

This is truly an ingenious idea, and a fad I never thought I would succumb to. Nonetheless, the more Snaps I send, the more enthralled I become with that seductive app, for several reasons.

Reason #1: Silly, yet intimate.

I am not a silly person, instead tending toward introversion and introspection. That's not to say I'm never silly or don't like to have fun in the more traditional sense of the word, nor do I think that silliness is always inappropriate. In fact, I think acting silly from time to time is greatly beneficial to one's life.

We all know that laughter is the best medicine, but also I think that showing a silly side of your self -- giving friends and family a glimpse of just how silly you can be at the expense of your pride or dignity -- demonstrates the extent that you value to those friends and family. What I'm trying to say is that by acting silly through Snapchat, you're intimating to your friends/family that they are close enough within your social circle to see an embarrassing side of you, in turn causing them to value you as a friend more, making them more likely to reciprocate said silliness, and thus strengthening the social bond between you.

        

This is Drew. He's something of a Snapchat prodigy.

Through Snapchat, I've been able to show my friends my capacity for ridiculousness, something I normally don't display in public settings. In return, many of my friends Snap me back in equal (and often greater) silliness, causing me to feel closer to them. It's refreshing and fun, and since those images people send disappear forever afterward, there is no limit to how silly (or vile) Snaps can be...think of the implications! [Note that these points I'm making are based solely on my intuition/experience and are not (to my knowledge) backed by research.]

    

Certainly not my most ridiculous -- those snaps have thankfully been lost forever.

Reason #2: Face-to-pixelated-face communication.

Going along with the first reason, I feel that Snapchat is just an inherently more intimate way to communicate for the sole reason that it involves visual imagery. When you send a simple text to someone, emotion and nonverbal communication are "lost in transmission" so to speak. Even when you're on the phone, you still can't see the person you're talking to, creating a sense of distance and separation. This depersonalizes the conversation, thus resulting in a less intimate exchange. When you add even a low quality, ephemeral image to your text, the conversation becomes much more personal, enhancing the social connection between you and your friend.

Just look how much Brady misses his "boyz." So sincere and cute...

This might be Snapchat's greatest asset: the simulation of face-to-face communication. Snapchat allows users to simulate emotions (like excitement, sadness, cheerfulness, rage, etc.), make funny faces, or create videos that explicitly show what they are up to (instead of just texting back "Nothing much, what're you up to?"). All of this serves to enhance the intimacy of this digital conversation beyond what a text or phone call can offer. One shining example in my personal life attests to this: My old friend and neighbor now lives in Bismarck, and I used to never seem him and rarely talked to him since he moved there. Now, with Snapchat, I "see" him almost everyday and feel almost as close to him as I did back in the good 'ol days.

Again, these are only observations made by me (and most likely many others) through extensive experience with the app and not backed by any research.

Reason #3: All fades, given time.

The third reason is undoubtedly what led to the explosion of Snapchat's popularity in the first place: Time limits. Having a set amount of time before that Snap fades into oblivion allows people to express themselves in ways texts or picture messages never could. People can communicate secret information without fear of being found out because once time's up, that savory piece of gossip or address to the exclusive party will be gone forever.

Furthermore, the time limit hearkens to our more...sinful nature. I won't even begin to speculate on the number of lewd, incriminating, sexually charged Snaps that have been sent since the app's creation (none by me, I assure you), but I imagine it's an obscene figure. Nevertheless, couples can communicate more freely and explicitly than ever before, which no doubt fuels each others' sex drives and in turn leads them to be more sexually active, which is usually a good thing for relationships. On the other hand, I'm sure many screenshots have been taken of these revealing snaps, promoting blackmail, exposing infidelity, and ultimately leading the destruction of relationships. But I think the pros of the time limit outweigh the cons. In general, this sort of "anything goes" mantra that Snapchat boasts eviscerates any limit to creative and experimental communication, which I believe is a good thing.

Overall, I think Snapchat deserves a fair shot from anyone with a smartphone, and I hope I did a good job of persuading you of its value. Continuing my recent them of openmindedness, I ask you all to give it a try, see what you think. You (probably) won't regret it!

Drew certainly hasn't.

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Edited by Ken McGurran