The invention of Snapchat revolutionized the social media world. The sheer concept is pure genius: you send a picture of you and then it disappears. And while many of us have mastered the act of screenshotting a 3 second snap, this hasn’t stopped the app from becoming one of the most popular.
Since its release in September 2011, Snapchat has evolved tremendously, bringing us numerous new features. Remember Snapchat pre-stories? Snap stories are HUGE. Without having to individual snap each friend, you can reach your entire friends list by adding a Snap to your story. After stories came filters (thank god) and the varying font type. Then, in July 2014, Snapchat hit us with another bang: geofilters. This was a total game changer. Now, without the need to Instagram or post to Facebook, Snap users can update everyone on their social whereabouts. Snap stories with geofilters aren’t excessively flashy, but rather a more subtle way to tell the world “THIS IS WHERE I AM AND I AM HAVING FUN!” It’s every social media lover’s dream come true!
To anyone who dares to question the relevance of Snapchat geofilters: I decided to test how common they were. I went on a quest to find 100 different geofilters. The rules were that (1) these filters had to be available only in a certain geographic region (no Me & Bae) and (2) these Snapchats had to either be sent to me directly (on Snapchat or via text) or come from my friends’ stories, not from those stories that Snapchat automatically shows to everyone (like those random cricket competitions in New Zealand). Other than that, all geofilters were fair game.
I started off by sending a mass message to a huge group of my high school friends, all dispersed at colleges across the country (even 1 in Canada!). I asked them to send me their respective geofiltered snaps, and was hit by nearly 50 snaps within the hour (shoutout to Murda). A friend at school had a home friend visiting, who took a particular liking to my project. She alone collected over 30 snaps (shoutout to Miki). From there I was SO close to my goal that I could practically taste the Snapchat victory. So I did what every determined snapper would do: began aggressively screenshotting my friends’ snap stories (shoutout to anyone who helped me inadvertently). Yes, I received a few concerned “Why did you screenshot my story!?!?” texts, but a quick explanation cleared the air. And, not only did I accomplish my goal, but I nearly doubled it with 194 (and counting!) different geofilters collected thus far. By popular demand (and by popular I mean one friend asking me), I have compiled the list of snaps here. To all my amazing friends who sent me snaps and pics of snaps, and to the randos that have no idea I screenshotted their stories, thank you, thank you, thank you!! Enjoy, and keep geofiltering!