Is Snapchat as Harmless as It Seems to Be?

    When you think of social media apps, what comes to mind? If you are over fifty, you most likely will say Facebook. If you are in your twenties to thirties, you might say Instagram. If you are in your teen years, Snapchat might be what you say-that, or TikTok. In 2011, the amazing selfie based app, Snapchat was created. For those who do not know what snapchat is, it is basically when you can send pictures or videos, which are called "snaps", to people. However, these "snaps" disappear once you have viewed them, unless the "snap" is saved to chat. Snapchat became popular because of of this unique feature. However, this is not the only thing that is unique about the app. Just like Instagram and Facebook, you are able to post on your Snapchat "story". However, the post eventually goes away after twenty-four hours. On the app you are able to create and customize a character called a Bitmoji. This Bitmoji is a way to express yourself without actually showing what you look like right off the bat. You are able to dress and style the avatar as much as you want and it becomes a staple to your Snapchat account. This Bitmoji is visible to anyone on Snapchat, just like a profile picture. Snapchat also has a feature called "snap map". Snap map is basically a map of the world and on that map is a bunch of your friends Bitmoji's. There, you can see the location of any of your friends and when the last time they were on the app. With that being said, if you do not want people knowing your location all the time, you can enable "ghost mode", where no one can see your location. It also has a feature where you can pick and choose what friends can and can not see your location. With all these features, Snapchat seems like a pretty cool and harmless app, but it is just the opposite. Some of the down sides to Snapchat are cyberbullying, screen time addiction, privacy threats, and predators. 

    I was around ten years old when I first got Snapchat. I always thought that was pretty late to get the app considering all my friends were already using it at eight years old. However, you might disagree and say it was too early, especially since I was not thirteen yet. I was so excited to finally have the app that all my friends would text on and rave about. In the beginning, I loved using all the filters, sending selfies to my friends and just posting random stuff on my story that I thought was worth posting. Snapchat became my obsession. The app made it so easy to text and talk to people that I would not have in person. It became my go to way of contacting anyone. 

    Fast forward eight years later, now. While I no longer have an obsession over Snapchat, which I would like to say, it is still one of, if not the most used app on my phone. However, throughout my eight years of being a user of the app, I have learned the dangers that snapchat can bring. Snapchat is a super easy way to cyberbully anyone. As long as you are friends on the app,  you have contact with them. It is easy to get in touch with whoever you want and send whatever message you want as well. What is even worse, you can make multiple Snapchat accounts posing as someone else or someone completely made up. That makes you anonymous-allowing you to send anything without your true identity being revealed. This leads to lots of predators on the app. Snapchat is aimed mostly to the younger generations, around 60% of all teens (13-17) years old use the app. That makes it extremely easy to target a minor and condone predatory acts. As time goes on, younger and younger aged kids are joining Snapchat. That just leads to more screen time addictions, chances of cyberbullying, child luring/ exploitation, and more. While Snapchat is a very popular app to use, it comes with its flaws. So, what do you think? Do you think Snapchat is safe to have?