Like many people as of late, I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with Snapchat.
Snapchat, for those of you unfamiliar, is a mobile social media platform with two features, “snap” and “chat” -- who would have thought, right?
Snapping consists of taking photos with either your front or rear camera (or videos up to 10 seconds) and then choosing to put either filters or captions on said image (or video!) After you’re happy with your picture, you can send it off to whoever you like, but once they view your image, it disappears. Your other option when you take a photo, is to put in on your “story,” where all your contacts can see it. The story lasts 24 hours and can be viewed as many times as you want.
Chatting is...well, chatting. Similar to Facebook Messenger, except, you guessed it, the texts disappear as soon as they’re read.
Now that you’ve been given a brief rundown of how Snapchat works, here’s why I love it so much!
Reason Number 1 -- Productivity.
Shocking, that a social media application can inspire someone to be productive, right? Well, I think Hillel Fuld said it best in his post over on Medium (which, by the way, is excellent):
“I get a LOT done throughout the day. You see, I share my story on Snapchat. I give my followers a glimpse into my day. No planning, no posing, just snapping. Then, at the end of the day, I often watch my story and realize, wow, I sure did accomplish a lot today.”
This feeling of satisfaction after a day hard at work is motivation to work harder the next day, and eventually leads into a motivational cycle of sorts. You get work done and feel good about it.
Reason Number 2 -- Expression.
One of the biggest problems I run into on other platforms I use (Skype, Facebook, Twitter, etc) is that it’s hard to tell how the other person is feeling through text alone. Are they being genuine or sarcastic? Who knows? With Snapchat, you can see the other person’s face, or at the very least what they’re doing. On the other end, your mood can be reflected in a snap far better than it can be in a chat, on the platform or otherwise. Snapchat's many filters are great for road trips, as you can display where you are at any given moment, and with the ability to save your story, you can look back on those trips.
Reason Number 3 -- Body Image.
This is by far my favorite thing that’s come out of my usage of Snapchat. On average, my stories are about 15 photos long, and this is excluding the snaps I send to friends. Eventually, looking at your own face as much as I do makes you more comfortable with yourself. In addition, with the accessibility of messaging platforms this day in age, it’s so easy to hide behind your words when the other person can’t see your face. You take more responsibility for your words when they’re accompanied by a photo of yourself, in a way. Also, I find that more and more as I take pictures of myself, I really start to feel good about how I look, something I’ve struggled with for several years.
Snapchat is a unique platform, and I’d suggest to anyone to try it out -- you just might end up loving it as much as I do!
Thanks for reading the first post on this blog!
-Audrey G
Snapchat for improving body image is a brilliant idea!
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