Snapchat

I love Snapchat. If you don’t know, Snapchat is a relatively new, free smartphone application. Using this app involves taking generally embarrassing or horrendous photos of you or your surroundings, selecting how long the receiver can see the photo, perhaps adding a caption or drawing on the photo, then sending it to another Snapchat user.  The viewer of the photo can see it for as short as one second and as long as ten seconds. After the selected amount of time, the picture is gone forever unless the person who received the photo takes a screenshot. If a screenshot is taken, the one who took the screenshot can do whatever they choose to with the picture. Luckily, if someone takes a screen shot of a picture you send, you get notified immediately.

Naturally the first thing many people thought of was the possibility of convenient sexting, or sending nude or provocative photos. Sexting is illegal and if you’re under 18, it is considered possessing and distributing child pornography. If charged with child pornography, you become a registered sex offender. I’m not 100% sure of what occurs after that, but it no doubt is any better than the rest of the situation.  I’m not sure why someone would “sext” using Snapchat. It’s illegal no matter how you do it.

I, personally, prefer to use the application to send the ugliest and funniest pictures of myself to my friends. If I know someone is having a better day, I cheer them up by sending a picture of me doing a funny face and suddenly they’re happier. Whether they’re happy for the entire day or just a short time, I don’t care. It’s nice to know I’m the reason they smile. On the flip side, I love getting pictures of people making the worst faces they can possibly make. It takes contortion and special control of face muscles to make the best faces for Snapchat.

Snapchat is the source of a lot of my entertainment, especially during school. I’m afraid that improper use of the application is going to result in Snapchat being removed from the application store permanently. 

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