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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Is Snapchat Beneficial?

    Is Snapchat Beneficial?

    Is Snapchat beneficial?

    I’m sure those words have never came out your parents mouths, but it is likely true. With proper guidance, technology can help develop reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, along with connecting and sharing their point of view with others, observe good role models, and become more politically and socially aware by watching news, documentaries and reading about issues online. Social media is not bad!

    Snapchat seems to get a bad reputation being one of the most popular forms of social media with teenagers and notoriously being known for hiding things. A snap or chat on Snapchat disappears after being sent, along with the popular stories feature. I don’t see this as a problem, only an alternate outlet for kids to display their thoughts and feelings on a unique platform.

    One great thing Snapchat can allow people to do is tell their own story’s and decide who can see them. This can help people identify who they are and there interests–connecting them with people who also like the same things. In the same sense Snapchat is private due to the fact no one can see your story’s unless you added them and you allow them to see it. Story’s get users engaged with filters that are unique all across the world.

    With social media comes social pressure. People feel the need to strive for likes to be popular, not with Snapchat. There is a feeling of less responsibility to show off and more stress on staying connected with friends through streaks, a counter that counts the days users talk to each other repetitively.

    We talked to senior Semra  Derisevic about what her thoughts on Snapchat. She said, “It gives teens an outlet to news that matters to them.– People will also randomly start streaks with people in their class that they might not know that well and they eventually become friends.”

    Snapchat keeps users engaged while making news and story’s fun and exciting. It brings out the creativity in us and allows us to have fun with photo editing. It’s accessible and not time-consuming, while having hours and hours of content. A study even showed according to Cyberwise.org, Snapchat is the most similar platform to having a face to face conversation with a peer, and greatly increases social bonding.

     

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