The update craze

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Social media thrives on the portability and multitasking capability of today’s technology. (Photo credit: Caitlin Somerville)

Social media has seen a lot of changes recently. In addition to using the new interactive filters, Snapchat users can now filter a video to speed up, slow down, or play backwards. Twitter has seen its trademark favorite button yield to the Instagram-inspired like button and added polls. Mercy girls, amid millions of people all over the world, tend to be avid social media users. So Mercy, what’s our position: are we for the changes or wishing we didn’t update our apps?

“I haven’t used [the filters] yet, but I’ve seen a lot of other people using them,” said junior Evie Drukker of Snapchat’s new video filters. “They look cool, though. They make me laugh.”

Along with Snapchat, Drukker uses Instagram and Twitter and has positive things to say about all three.

Well, mostly.

“I think the polls on Twitter are fun,” she said, “but I don’t like having likes instead of favorites.” Fellow junior Maria Pizzo agrees.

“I feel like a ‘like’ is much more personal than a favorite,” Pizzo said. “It works for Instagram but it feels wrong on Twitter. There’s no need to fix something that isn’t broken.”

Some are so upset about this change that they’ve accused Apple of being insensitive to those who are colorblind and may not be able to distinguish the red like button from the green retweet button right next to it. Pizzo, however, isn’t too concerned with that.

“I feel like because of the symbols color blind people would still be able to distinguish [the buttons],” she said. “Not to mention that they kept the order.”

Another controversy arose with Snapchat. The company changed its Terms and Privacy Policy, a part of which led some to believe that it would be saving snaps.

“I wouldn’t want them saving my snaps,” Drukker said. “Some of them are really ugly – like double chin stuff.”

It’s safe to say that anyone would be concerned about having their her Snapchat history kept on file; the company did, however, clarify what changes actually occurred.

According to the company, “the Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update. Snapchat is not — and never has been — stockpiling your private Snaps or Chats.”

It goes on to explain that it was only trying to make the Terms and Privacy Policy easier to read and understand by putting it in everyday language.

Change has been happening so rapidly that there’s bound to be another soon. So stay tuned. #what’snext?