First things first, I love social media. Don’t get me wrong. I’m getting a certificate in digital media, and I work on the social media committee for Her Campus. I’ve spent countless hours scrolling through Twitter, tagging my friends in pointless Facebook memes, and brainstorming Instagram captions. Social media has become ingrained in my daily routine, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. However, you won’t find Snapchat on my phone. I deleted my account in November 2017, and it was the best decision I’ve made in a long time.
I had three issues with Snapchat: streaks, presence, and FOMO.
When I deleted Snapchat, all of my friends were mad. Why? We lost out streaks. That little number next to my name was gone, and that drove my friends crazy. Streaks were just one of a few things that I disliked about Snapchat. It almost felt like a job, keeping that little flame alive, and I felt obligated to keep all of them. Social media should be fun, but streaks made Snapchat feel like a task that I had to complete every day.
Another issue I had with Snapchat was presence. It seemed like whenever something exciting happened, my first reaction was to grab my phone and Snapchat it. Soon, it felt like I was living more through my screen than the actual moment. Shortly after deleting Snapchat, I remember going to a concert. The opening song was the musician’s big hit, and almost everyone raised up their phone to record the moment. However, myself having no outlet for a ten-second video clip simply enjoyed the moment. It was nice to simply live in the moment, and not worry about immediately sharing it with other people.
My last issue with Snapchat is FOMO. FOMO, for those who don’t know, is the Fear Of Missing Out. When I first got social media in high school, I had a huge issue with FOMO. I would scroll my newsfeeds, and feel social anxiety about my lack of a “postable” night. However, as I got older, I learned that you can pretty much manipulate social media to make your life seem different than your actual reality. I think most people try to present the best version of themselves on social media, and that’s totally okay. Once I realized this, social media didn’t really give me a sense of FOMO. The exception was Snapchat. Snapchat, being a very much “in the moment” app, easily gave me FOMO if I was having a dull night and people were posting stories of them out and about. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t help but get a sense of FOMO; despite knowing that there were plenty of times were this situation was reversed. Once I deleted Snapchat, I deleted my sense of FOMO. All other forms of social media are easy for me to escape this feeling, due to my understanding of how people present themselves, and I love that I was able to erase that sense of social anxiety for myself.
I’m not saying Snapchat is a bad form of social media. It is fun, and a great source of communication for many. I’ve just found that my Snapchat-less life to be more beneficial to my state of being than one with the Snapchat. I recommend you try deleting Snapchat for a few days (you can always give a friend a log in to save your streaks), and see if you reap the same benefits that I did.
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