It is — in every sense of the word — a travesty, that a professional businessman, Evan Spiegel who is the CEO of Snapchat, has sunk to the lowest depths, and introduced us to a trend so misleading and offensive. Snapchat is a social media application which lets people take pictures or videos using their mobile devices and send it to their friends. People buy into this trend, not knowing the flaws behind it. At nearly every social gathering, one can expect a young teen to take either a picture or video and send it to their friends via Snapchat. This is the current image the world has of the millennial generation. As one who is part of the millennial generation, I am personally disgusted at the idea. What makes Snapchat interesting compared to other applications, or even the stock picture and video messaging app on a smartphone, is that the pictures or videos sent via Snapchat are deleted after a limited amount of time. Sounds interesting, right? Snapchat seems fun and enjoyable, but the potential trouble that comes with Snapchat is not fun or enjoyable at all. Other than the occasional friendly photo, not much good comes out of Snapchat. Essentially, the good of Snapchat does not outweigh the bad.

When I first heard of Snapchat from a friend, I was instantly hooked! I would constantly be taking random pictures and send them to my friends, hoping to get a giggle or a Snap out of them. Each time I received a Snap, the app had my undivided attention, and I would sometimes break the only unspoken rule of Snapchat (meaning I took screenshots of several photos). I used Snapchat so much, it started to replace texting, or even phone calls. I would not respond to many texts, but if I received a Snapchat, I would reply in a matter of minutes. For the record, I am not one to text in class, nor do I use my phone for any social purpose whatsoever at such a time. The fact that I changed due to an app tells me that I was, at best, mildly addicted to its use. I was flabbergasted by this change of my habits and work ethic. This change prompted me do research on the app. Not for any particular reason, but I became curious about it. From my curiosity, I discovered disturbing things mainly how our privacy is more vulnerable than we could ever imagine. The whole reason why I downloaded Snapchat was to alleviate anxiety, but the truth behind it is quite the opposite.

When I started researching, I was simultaneously eyeing the activity of my friends through Snapchat. The snaps I received in the past involved a wide variety of creative pictures and videos such as friends with salt and pepper shakers drawn over them and people drawn with Hawaiian grass skirts. However, it was not the content I received which was controversial, but the setting was completely inappropriate. For instance, the salt and pepper shaker photo was during an animation lab, and the Snap of the people in grass skirts was during a church service. That means the people who took these snaps had to have taken photos during church and lab, then use the art feature of Snapchat to draw the salt and pepper shakers and grass skirts. Similar to my addiction of Snapchat, it was not necessarily the content I was sending through Snapchat, but the setting I was in. Not only are people using Snapchat during church and school, but I have personally used Snapchat during work. It is not abnormal for a religious service to require people to put their electronic devices away so they can have their undivided attention, and the same obviously goes for school, yet we still do it. If Snapchat is causing people to divert their attention away from their job, education, or religious beliefs, then these people are indirectly saying the use of the app is more important than the task at hand.

If we cannot control our use of the app, then the world is simply not ready for an app like Snapchat. Or maybe Snapchat is not be ready for the world either. Snapchat is liable for one of the worst things any social networking site or application can do. Last January, Snapchat was responsible for compromising the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million users . It goes beyond the integrity of Snapchat, it is also about the safety of the user. Nowadays, all people need is just a cell phone number to track people down. Yahoo.com claims as long as the certain phone number is still active, any person can look up another person solely using the number (Sousa 2). As a former Snapchat fanatic, I am disappointed and quite angry to hear my name, number, and email account could have been compromised due to Snapchat’s lack of responsibility. Luckily, 4.6 million is roughly only ten per cent of Snapchat’s entire clientele. But why wait for something more serious? Even if people were not able to find each other with this information, when we download an app like Snapchat, we are conditioned to the idea our information is safe with the them. But it is not, and with our information in the wrong hands, who knows what it could be exposed to. This is only the first reason showing how vulnerable our information is because of Snapchat. These security compromises can only happen if we allow them to, therefore if everyone boycotted Snapchat, they would have no information to lose.

However, for some people, this illusion of security is not enough. Maybe they are fearless, or more logically, maybe they will just take their chances nothing bad is going to happen. Quite honestly, I am not too concerned a large man will knock on my door wearing a hockey mask and carrying a chain-saw either. But that is only one reason which contributes to Snapchat’s illusion of security they give to their users. If safety is not enough for themselves, then maybe the safety of young teens might convince individuals to remove Snapchat from our smartphones.

Teens are at risk because the pictures and videos they share actually have a very high chance of being exploited. The main reason why Snapchat should be eradicated refers to the terms and conditions. If we carefully read what it says, we would distinctively see Snapchat does not delete its contents. They are entitled to the pictures we send, making every single piece of information their intellectual property. In other words, the idea behind Snapchat is flawed. What Snapchat really does is they give the user an illusion of security, having them think their information and pictures are private while they are actually not. The very reason people use Snapchat is to send a picture or video to a friend with the security of the file never being seen by the light of day again. This is, however, an impossible task to do when one is introduced to the fact Snapchat holds every single picture and video on their servers. There is no legitimacy behind Snapchat, nor is there any truth behind the concept.

This was the last straw for me. Once I found out my videos and pictures I exchanged using the app were not actually deleted, I refused to use the app altogether because it violates everything the app was supposedly created for. Not only was I irritated by this, but Snapchat has the right to sell our information and content too. In other words, if I decided to run for a government office my whole campaign could be ruined if Snapchat decides to release of few of my past photos. It feels like there is no way out. Once a snap has been sent we do not want the rest of the world to see, it can very well end up public on the internet. I refuse to further buy into this false sense of security, and let myself be vulnerable to this technology.

Snapchat hides the truth from coming out about our security, allowing so much to go unnoticed. In the end, the vulnerability of our private information is too much to tolerate, which is why I have chosen to disassociate myself from an app I once enjoyed. Snapchat is not just a harmful fad, but a window for the public to potentially see our personal lives and friendships. To all who are reading this, you have now seen the problems which can occur with Snapchat. I ask you to not just look at the fun and trendiness of Snapchat, but Spiegel’s business operations and dishonesty. Do yourself favor, and delete your Snapchat for good.

 

Contact contributor Jeremy Malek, here.