Snapchat

I hate Snapchat.

When you send me your pictures, you give me a gift.

When you send them in Snapchat, you are showing me a gift – and then, taking it back.

I understand the theory of Snapchat – the promise of photos, movies, words, disappearing, never to be seen again, never to come back to haunt. And that’s appealing. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because of weaknesses in Snapchat, and it doesn’t work because we all have a multiplicity of cameras in our lives. I can take a picture of a Snapchat photo with my computer. Sure, it’s not perfect. But what protection are we seeking? What protection are we getting.

And so we’re left with all the downsides of Snapchat – you send me a hot picture, or a brief video, and I watch it, look at it, see it. But the way my brain works, I don’t get to take it in. That doesn’t happen instantly. It happens after 5, or 10, or 30 seconds. When I’ve processed what you’ve sent, what it looks like, how hot you are. When I’ve attended to which parts of the image are the hottest, when I’ve ascertained what more it’s made me realize I need to see.

But with Snapchat, by then? The image is gone.

It’s quite rare for me to go back and look at an image or video I’ve been sent a second time.

Their value lies in my having been given them.

And with Snapchat? I’m not. I’m not given them. I’m shown them.

I hate Snapchat.

4 comments

    1. I have an Android, not rooted. I don’t know that it’s possible to take a screenshot. (When I’ve tried, I’ve unintentionally advanced to the next picture.) And anyway, I still fucking hate Snapchat. 😉

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