Many Mercy girls’ phones are constantly blowing up with Snapchat notifications. There is a continuous feeling to keep up with ‘streaks’, the number of days two people have been sending each other Snapchats. The amount of views you get on your story holds value and having private stories with your friends has become a way to measure how close you are with people. All of these things combined have created a Snapchat culture, a way people communicate with photographs and videos that can hold more value than actual face to face interaction. This has created an environment that holds no real value, is a complete waste of time, and has created a terrible new social environment on the phone.

A number next to a name on the Snapchat screen holds too much value to many people. Keeping streaks on Snapchat is an absolute waste of time and creates horrible habits among teens and teaches them a small number on a screen adds value to relationships with other people. This phenomenon has taken over the lives of many Mercy girls. When teens go on trips with no WiFi, they find a friend to keep up their streaks for them and some people even get mad when they lose a streak. This value that has been placed on streaks adds nothing to a person’s life or relationships and drains time that could be spent doing more productive or important things. Instead, it wastes time away by sending pictures of your forehead to a bunch of people, some of whom you may barely know.

With social media taking a front seat in teen lives, it’s time to start facing the reality of how Snapchat is one social media outlet that wastes time.