“Streaks” are the sole reason I keep using the Snapchat app. I am afraid that, if I break a streak, I will lose a friendship. Yes…apparently a simple number on an app has the power to end a friendship.
If you have ever heard of the word streak, or have seen the word in a picture sent to you on the app Snapchat, you probably know what it means: It is a number that keeps track of how many days you have been Snapchatting a certain person. The larger the number gets, the more obsessed people become with keeping the streak going. The last time I lost a streak that was more than 100 days long, my friend got angry at me in real life. She threatened to not talk to me for a week if I didn’t try to uphold another one. At this point, it’s a tiring cycle. Some streaks have lasted for 700, 800, or even more days.
This could possibly show that the way that we communicate as a generation is changing. We simply send a blank screen or a random picture with the caption, “streaks,” or “streaks and recents,” to all of our friends. Even more troubling is that this all of the contact we have with them for the rest of the day. These aren’t meaningful, handwritten letters. These aren’t hour-long phone calls from a loved one. These aren’t even texts that ask how your day has been. These are meaningless pictures of nothing. They are a way to win…what? Pride? A friendship? A title? I’m honestly not sure.
What is the point in upholding streaks? These numbers just keep us even more engrossed in our tiny digital worlds than our meaningful realities. Social media has changed our lives, but Snapchat streaks are completely re-developing how we communicate with our friends and family…and I’m not sure if it’s for the better.