Snappy Snapchat

 I would bet a significant amount of money that every individual reading my blog has downloaded or used Snapchat at some point in their lives. According to the "Essentials of Social Media Marketing" textbook, Snapchat was originally launched as "Picaboo" in 2011. However, later that year it was changed to Snapchat. Again, India has the highest number of users, with the United States coming in second and France placing third. One of the most surprising statistics in this chapter was that Snapchat advertisements receive twice the visual attention of Facebook advertisements. Snapchat contains a vast amount of features. Some of those features include texting friends, communicating via group chats, posting on stories, creating private stories for a select group of friends and taking pictures. In addition, individuals can choose from hundreds of filters and apply them to their faces. When I was in middle school, this aspect of Snapchat was extraordinarily popular. Yet another feature of Snapchat is the ability to see where your friends are located on the map. A fun fact about this social media platform is that it is a self-proclaimed nocturnal app. Users tend to use this app in the late hours of the night. 

    I am done spitting facts so let's talk about other aspects of the platform. I was first allowed to have Snapchat during my freshman year of high school. The features I used the most were the dog ears filter, flower headband filter and the face-swap filter. When I first started using Snapchat, it was impossible to save a snap that someone sent you. The idea was that you could send a picture or text to someone and it would disappear as soon as they saw it. This enabled people to send censored images or be sneaky in other ways. Thankfully, many updates have helped the app evolve. Today, Snapchat has features for taking videos, timer pictures, a multi-snap feature, ways to save snaps and texts, calling and video calling, as well as a Snapchat Plus upgrade which was launched in 2022. 

    As I grow older, I use Snapchat less and less. When I was in high school, the coolest kids had the highest snap scores. I aimed to Snapchat as many people as humanly possible. However, today I am not a part of that culture. When my boyfriend and I started dating, I realized how addicting social media can be and how much I relied on it for my self-worth. I primarily text my good friends on iMessage and I rarely Snapchat people. I would love to know how much you all use Snapchat! Have the most amazing Spring Break and happy snapping!