By Pauline Nacar
I’ve never been a massive user of Snapchat. Finding things to “snap” has always been a task I never enjoyed, as I’m always too shy to present my everyday boring life on the app, even though I enjoy watching other people’s everyday life a little too much (it’s like everyone has their own reality show). Everyone’s doing it, but I can’t seem to shake off the fear that every friend I have on the app will get to see and watch whatever I post, and see how truly boring my life is. It’s ridiculous, really, considering that other people’s stories are usually just made up of funny filtered faces and pointless “walking around” shots anyway – so I shouldn’t find trouble doing the same, right?
But if you think about it, Snapchat (as all forms of social media) has one sole job – to be a means for people to socialize amongst each other and to communicate with one another. But, as an article in Internet Billboards pointed out, the way we do so in Snapchat is all too similar to how we do it in real life – that is, when we talk to each other and spend time with one another, these moments disappear. Also, since everything’s happening in real time and you can’t upload a photo taken outside the app, it offers no room for false identities—no edits, no disguises and therefore, absolutely no catfishing. It’s like we’re walking around school, talking to friends face-to-face and asking them about their day, and then these moments are gone, stored nowhere except in our memories.
Until now.
Now, Snapchat has a new feature that changes the app completely. Our personal snaps are now stored in – funnily enough–our Memories. You can now search for old snaps by entering keywords, and can compile them for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.
It’s a strange thing to find in Snapchat, especially since its original appeal came from its ephemeral nature that only lets us watch stories once. This also contradicts with the reasons stated by millennials in this article as to why our generation is obsessed with the app–its spontaneity, temporariness and realness that gives you the freedom to post any pointless thing and express yourself in any way because hey, it’ll be gone by tomorrow anyway!
Now even with this new feature on Snapchat, there’s still that layer of privacy since we still can’t see other people’s Memories and old Snaps so it’s still that one form of social media that we don’t have to fear will bite us in the ass in the future through cringe-worthy photos (or in Snapchat’s case, filtered faces gone wrong) jumping out on us when we thought they’re long gone and forgotten.
Photo from The Verge