Why I’m Not On Snapchat

As someone who is a part of Generation Z, I am well aware of the fact that most people in my generation are on social media. I mean, according to Forbes, 98% of people in my generation own a smartphone and 97% use it as a main source of shopping inspiration. The reality is that we are on our phones all of the time and we use it a lot more than most other Generations do. I will admit that I am even on social media. However Snapchat is one of the apps that I refuse to ever download.

Now you may be wondering to yourself: why Snapchat? Out of all of the apps that are out there, why limit myself to this one? Well the truth is, the only social media app that I actually have is Instagram, and that is purely because I can keep up to date with other organizations that I'm involved in and see what's happening around campus without actually having to post anything myself. The main purpose of Snapchat, however, is to send images or brief video clips to other people as the main source of communication.  

You can call me paranoid but I try to keep control over my privacy as much as I can. There was always something about sending pictures of myself to other people that kind of made me feel uncomfortable. I simply don't trust other people enough to send them pictures of myself, even if they are my friends. I mean, I look back to my middle school and high school days thankful that people who I thought were my “friends” never actually got photos from me that they could have screenshotted or saved without my knowledge. 

Another thing that I wasn't a huge fan of was the “map” option on Snapchat. While I know that there are privacy settings and ways that you can turn your location off, a lot of people I knew growing up had their location on. I never liked the fact that people who weren't my family could see my location or that my friends could see our other friends' location. 

And yes some people use Snapchat as a texting app because Snapchat does have a messaging option on their platform. I always just used the regular iMessage app on my phone to connect with my friends, so I didn't see the need to download another app to do that. Sometimes it was fun in middle school to use the goofy filters that were on the app, but again, it was not enough to make me download it.

Everybody has their own preferences as to what they are and are not comfortable with sharing online. I try to avoid my face being on the Internet or on any other apps besides the photo app on my phone. That's just what I'm comfortable with, and I'm not going to pressure other people to do the same. These are just a couple of reasons why Snapchat never really interested me, and I thought I would share them with you.

See you next time,

Evie