By now, everybody and their mother has a Snapchat. No, actually, my mom has a Snapchat. With so many users, they must be doing something right. Well, according to a new study at the University of Michigan, people rated Snapchat as the most rewarding interaction other than face-to-face conversations. Facebook and Instagram are typically used to make big announcements or to post enviable pictures. Snapchat, however, is more spontaneous and tends to show the day-to-day happenings of people’s’ lives rather than just the most important events. That’s why using Snapchat is most closely linked to having an actual conversation with someone.
Sounds all well and good, right? Not so fast. As fellow Her Campus writer Elisabeth Staal wrote about a few weeks ago, Snapchat filters are changing for the worse. Snapchat recently added a new filters feature that feature animations. Some of them are harmless and fun, such as one that adds bunny ears and chubby cheeks, and one that adds a lumberjack hat and squares out your jaw. Others are a bit more problematic. There are multiple filters that smooth over your skin as well as making your eyes bigger and blue. Um, I thought this was Snapchat, not Photoshop! While other filters are comical, these ones are purely vain. As if we don’t feel enough pressure to have big, blue eyes and flawless skin, now Snapchat is encouraging it, too.
While I certainly won’t be boycotting Snapchat any time soon, I definitely won’t be using the new smoothing filters. What do you think about these new filters? Harmless fun, or seriously detrimental