Not only do the three dots that pop up and then immediately disappear on the messaging app cause us an insane amount of stress and curiosity, but so too does the white triangle with a red outline, which indicates the person has seen the Snapchat you sent but hasn’t yet responded. There is no need for college students or people in general to be more stressed than they already are with school work, jobs and personal drama. Building and maintaining relationships shouldn’t be so difficult. Yet, we as a generation keep putting stock into different apps and fads that create more anxiety in our lives.

Snapchat was released in September 2011 and has been growing in popularity ever since. According to research done by Cornell University, Snapchat offers unique qualities that Facebook and Instagram cannot contend with. Snapchat offers a small circle of friends and only allows messages to save as long as people want, so people feel less self-conscious and less restrained by the content they post or send out. However, Snapchat, just like other social media apps, is threatening our ability to communicate effectively with people around us when we see them in person. Face-to-face communication between friends and potential romantic interests  now seems so much more awkward.

Furthermore, people can have a false confidence or a fake sense of self when hiding behind their Snapchat filters.

Budding relationships crumble so quickly because of Snapchat. The app’s features such as best friends and streaks can create awkward feelings between people. Instead of talking to people face to face and knowing where you stand with that person, now you are obsessing over trying to discover where you are on their best friend list and trying to stalk them on the Snap Map.

Additionally, the app hurts relationships of people who communicate outside of the app as well. When a girl is on a date and she’s on her phone taking selfies, the guy is not going to be interested in her; he’s going to think she’s more interested in herself than in him, which is not entirely untrue. Sitting at the dinner table with friends and family members can be one of the most enlightening and fun events a person can have on a week-to-week basis; however, all of that face-to-face interaction is just in the background when we use our phones as our main point of interest.

People no longer are allowing themselves to have real conversations and real relationships with the people in their life because Snapchat is more immediate and exciting in some ways; however, all that does is isolate people, causing them to feel much lonelier and much less satisfied than they were before they started using the app. Honestly, I would encourage deleting the app altogether, because there just really isn’t much good that comes from trying to live your life for other people or taking selfies instead of interacting with those right in front of you.