Snapchat, as we all know, is a photo messaging app. Almost everyone in the school has heard of it and almost everyone has Snapchat downloaded onto their phones. It’s the new texting. It’s easier, faster, and more efficient but how is it being used? There’s several ideas on how to use it. Both negative and positive. Snapchat can be a  good thing or a bad thing.

Snapchat can be fun. Teens can connect with friends, chat with friends, send goofy pictures of yourself to friends and have a ‘Snap’ war. It’s very popular amongst teens because we can be very self-centered so we love to see pictures of ourselves. Sometimes texting a friend just doesn’t work. The only way to text them is through Snapchat. It makes it easier to talk to people without having to actually talk to them.  It also helps parents with texting their child. It helps them by getting ahold of their child faster.

Kylie Clifton, a junior, said, “You can actually text them and talk to them and facetime your friends,”

Darcie Spencer, a junior, enjoys Snapchat. “I like that it feels more personal than texting sometimes, but I also feel like it’s just another way of being social without actually being social,”

Snapchat is a great app but with every positive, there’s a negative.The disadvantages are abundant. Sometimes the app freezes. It will often send blank snapchats to your friends. Not only do we have issues with the app but it is also being abused. Some are using it inappropriately so that means it ruins Snapchat for the rest of us. Along with those, there’s also a feature that users have to add their phone number to so they can connect with people from their contacts. That means that they can see your phone number and utilize that to their advantage. It also means that new contacts will automatically be added to your Snapchat friends list.

Spencer said, “It’s just another way people learn to use to get out of being social.”

There’s the problem of people screenshotting your pictures so they can use that picture for other purposes. Those inappropriate pictures shouldn’t be sent anyways, but it’s not okay to screenshot them. Also, if a really cool picture was sent, you can’t see that picture again. That’s the whole point of this app. The creators of this app made it so you can only see a friends photo for 1-10 seconds. This, essentially, is being abused.

” People can screenshot your pics and you can never see your pictures again,” Clifton said.

Snapchat can be both useful and destructive. There’s many ways as to positively use it like: using as a different form of texting or talking to buddies. There’s many ways as to use this app negatively like: screenshotting inappropriate pictures, or using it to an advantage. Snapchat can be a good thing or a bad thing but, it just depends on how people are using it.