By Ben Westcott, Staff Writer
With over 60 million downloads and 16.5 million daily users, snapchat is the most popular app because of its unique features. Snapchat is a picture messaging app that allows you to send pictures and small videos for the recipient to view for a small amount of time.
If you are a snapchat user, you probably know that the snapchat developers are regularly adding new ways to keep in contact with your friends, like the chat feature, and the group snapchatting.
The most popular feature of Snapchat are streaks. Snapchat streaks determine how many days you have been snapchatting someone consecutively. Streaks will end if one person does not snap the other within 24 hours of the last Snapchat sent. The longest snapchat streak ever recorded was set on October 11, 2016 and lasted 798 days.
On January 10, 2017, snapchat released version 9.45.10.0 which allowed Snapchat users to chat with up to 16 freinds at one time. Snapchat calls this feature group snapchatting. Unfortunately for snapchat users, group chats cannot have a recorded snap streak.
During an update not too long ago, snapchat added emojis next to a person’s name on your snapchat feed that you are snapchatting. One of these emojis is the fire emoji , which appears on a name in your feed if you have a snapchat streak, followed by the number of days you have been snapchatting them consecutively. The fire emoji, along with all the other emojis, can be changed in the settings of the app.
Snapchat streaks are used to show a level of mutual friendship with someone else.
“As a frequent snapchat user, I think snapchat streaks better improve my relationships with my friends because it shows that we have a mutual friendship that is growing,” sophomore Daniel Havens said. “Its essential to keep your friendships ever growing and i think that snapchat streaks help with that.”
“Snapchat streaks really reflect who your real friends are because no one wants to have a streak with someone they don’t like,” freshman Ross Ogburn said.
Snapchat streaks are a form of entertainment or a way to see how long two people can keep a snapchat streak.
“It’s fun to see how long I can keep my snapchat streaks before breaking them,” Havens said
It is also an outlet for ensuring mutual friendships.
“To have a snapchat streak with someone, especially a long one, means that you and that person have a mutual friendship, and you can see that because both people care about keeping the streak, which is really empowering,” Ogburn said.
By Sophia Fitzgerald, Staff Writer
You’re sitting class watching the clock tick. It almost 1:00 and suddenly you realize you are about lose your Snapchat streaks! You whip out your phone as quickly as possible. You respond to everyone with a picture of your desk, sigh in relief and go back to watching the clock.
Snapchat streaks are the number that appears next to a person you’re snapchatting based how long you snapchat them. The number corresponds to the number of days you have been snapchatting them consecutively. You lose the streak if both you and the person you are snapchatting do not respond within 24 hours. Maintaining streaks has become important for teenagers in upholding their social media personality.
Keeping up Snapchat streaks is a waste of time, energy and data. Some teenagers end up going over their data limit because they are too focused on maintaining their streak.
It also puts stress on the snapchatter because they feel as if it is their duty to continue the streak. If they lose the streak, whoever they share it with might get angry. It causes stress because teens feel like they cannot lose their streak or it might cause a strain on a friendship. Many people react in a hostile way when the person with whom they hold the streak with does not reply.
Also there is a conspiracy that Snapchat created streaks to keep people coming back. Snapchatters feel obligated to continue their streaks so they will continue snapchatting.
“Snapchat streaks are a waste of time and I don’t get too attached to keeping them,” junior Grace Combs said.
Combs does not worry much about maintaining Snapchat streaks. She believes there are better ways to spend time and better ways to utilize social media.
“They’re very tedious, they feel like a chore,” Combs said.
Snapchatting also does not allow for much conversation because the picture can only stay up for a maximum of 10 seconds. This means the streak being kept mainly consists of sending pictures of random things. It holds no real value and you aren’t actually conversing with anyone. Frequently people just send pictures of black screens.
In general, Snapchat streaks are detrimental to teens because they causes stress, waste data and they are really just a ploy to get snapchatters to keep coming back.
“I feel like Snapchat is just another way for teenagers to waste times so they don’t have to focus on their real work,” Combs said.
Photo from Snapchat.