Snapchat is a very, very popular social media application used not by only millennials but by parents and children. But there are things that some may not realize that Snapchat is doing: Snapchat is ruining your life.









How is snapchat ruining your life?

Snapchat is doing so in the following ways. Snapchat:

1) Leads to FOMO

FOMO un-abbreviated is known as fear of missing out. According to Psychology Today, FOMO frequently provokes feelings of anxiety and restlessness, often generated by competitive thoughts that others are experiencing more pleasure, success, or fulfillment in their lives than you are.

When you use Snapchat you are constantly bombarded by what others, mainly your friends, are doing, whether that is eating an amazing dinner, going to a concert, or enjoying a new life experience. This sometimes causes you to compare your life to the lives of others to guage how amazing or exciting it is. But comparing your life to others is not the way to go especially since you actually have different tastes and expectations from life. But these differences sometimes are forgotten about when comparing what others are doing to yours.

Snapchat allows for people to focus on the positives of their lives, but for all you know these same individuals may have an illness, depression, or money problems that are actually stressing them out but they put on a different lens for you to see through to make themselves feel more important. So your fear that you’re missing out is often misplaced.

2) Takes the excitement out of conversations

The fact your friends can showcase their lives 24/7 makes it so that now you’re aware of what they do and sometimes what they are feeling or saying. This takes the excitement or sometimes suspense out of talking to them. In the past you would have to call your friend or meet them in person to know what they are doing or what they had done during the weekend. But because people want others to know they are doing something with their lives you will find out on snapchat while it’s occurring. So now when you meet your friends you sort of know what they had done and that takes the particular event off the list off conversation topics.

3) Paints a false image of the lives of your friends and maybe yourself

Sometimes you want to make your friends think you are doing something new, exciting, or even out of this world with your lives. But, truly, you are mainly searching the web, working, going to school, watching TV, or sleeping. Because you only focus on things you think your friends will find cool, funny, or exciting you paint a false image that your life is filled with more ups than downs. Because of the images and videos you see you think that your friends are constantly doing fun things. But if you were to follow them and tell them not to Snapchat for the day – highly unlikely to occur -you would quickly realize their lives are as mundane and repetitive as your own.

4) Leads to the overuse of your phones and ruins events

Cell phones are owned by many Americans today. But the amount of time spent on it is ever increasing and snapchat and many other social media apps are to be sort of blamed. Go to a concert or any speculative event and you will see that people are Snapchatting that event instead of enjoying it to the fullest with their eyes and minds. Not saying you cannot enjoy and record a live event but that it sometimes obstructs the visions of those people behind you.

Snapchat ruins lives and we need to limit its use or get rid of it completely. It takes true self control to get there, but with practice, you can achieve this goal.

If you agree or disagree, leave a comment below