A new study, published in the journal Information, Communication & Society, has found that Snapchat has the capability to make people happier than any other social media platform. The experiment was conducted at the University of Michigan, where college students were studied over a two week span. Basically, the idea was to see if there was any scientific data they could pull together to see if people felt the happiest getting an Insta like, a funny Snapchat, or having someone engage with them on Facebook (as long as it wasn’t a ‘poke’….keep that in 2007 please).
The researchers discovered that when college students interacted with Snapchat, their reactions were far more positive than any other platform. This may be due to the sole fact that you know your ugly selfie will disappear in under 10 seconds, or maybe it’s just because people are genuinely funnier and more carefree on Snapchat than the 40 minutes they put into the perfect Instagram. In addition, not only were they way happier when interacting with Snapchat over Facebook and other platforms, they were spending more attention on the Snapchat notifications they were receiving, and gave them more attention as opposed to glancing at the little orange Insta heart.
After first seeming extremely creepy and a swamp ground for sexual predators, Snapchat has come a HUGE way. In 2015, Snapchat can make you spit rainbows, replay you running over a fence backwards, and almost every other new and upcoming technological feature in the works to enhance you laying in bed hungover, eating, or dropping the most fire selfie Snapchat story of the year – and guess what, this is all now is basically beneficial to your mental health! Snap away! Just don’t make a 300 second long Snapchat story at 2am and blame it on trying to up your mental levels of happiness. That won’t fly with your contact list.