Is Snapchat still the best way to communicate as a teen?

Snapchat was all the rage a year or two ago, but now that we are seniors, teens are using it less and less. Personally, I find myself texting my friends instead of sending a Snapchat. When I was a freshman, Snapchat was the easiest way to get your friends to respond quickly. Back then it was used to send streaks to everyone in your contact list. Now that I am a bit older, I find myself not using Snapchat all that much anymore. 

People are now using Snapchat as a platform by posting on their stories to spread the news about school events and sports events. Friends use Snapchat to send selfies and keep a streak, but do not necessarily send streaks anymore. A streak is the number of days that you and a friend Snapchat back and forth. Snapchat is used as a way for teens to stay in touch with their friends they don’t see every day. Honestly, I don’t think Snapchat is going anywhere because of its convenience and easy-to-learn software.

Senior Hannah White had said, “I still use Snapchat today quite often, I don’t send streaks anymore, but I used to send them twice a day. I think that everyone our age still uses Snapchat but just not as much as we used to. I Snapchat my close friends all the time. I find myself leaving people I don’t talk to as often on delivered or opened.” When I asked some of my other friends they felt the same way with Snapchat at this point in our lives.  

I asked Ms. Libby what her thoughts were on Snapchat and she was able to give me the perspective of a parent and a teacher. “I don’t understand the concept of Snapchat. I find it disruptive when my sons and I are in the middle of dinner and they make a face for a Snap. I think Snapchat is used too much by my sons and even my students. When I teach, I see students glued to their phones on Snapchat. I think that it is an obsession of sorts.” I think Ms. Libby speaks for most teachers when she says that students use Snapchat too much.

When I was in middle school, I used Snapchat a lot more than I do now. Just like Hannah, I used to send streaks twice a day and was upset when I lost a streak with a friend. As I got older I stopped using Snapchat as much. Now I only keep a streak with people that I talk to every day. Snapchat used to be an app that I was always on but now I rather just send a text to my friends. My friends are more likely to answer my text than when I send a Snapchat. I don’t believe that Snapchat will ever die out, I just think that teens will continue to use it less and less.