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Remember when your biggest worry was breaking that month-long Snapchat streak with your best friend? While I do miss those days, it’s lost its charm over the years, which is one of many reasons why I no longer bother opening Snapchat.
1It Began Affecting The Way I Perceived Myself
When Snapchat was peaking, I vividly remember finding Snapchat lenses incredibly fun to use. From the classic dog lens to the flower crown, Snapchat left no stone unturned when it came to having an incredible selection of lenses. Like everyone else, I quickly hopped onto the selfie bandwagon. All of this happened when I was barely a teenager, and as time passed, I began to realize that my selfies didn’t feel right without a lens applied.
Sure, the goofy lenses were a great way to make memories with my friends, and I have nothing against them whatsoever. The issue begins when Snapchat lenses completely alter the way you look. From changing your skin tone to smoothing it to slimming down your face, Snapchat lenses can be a good way to boost your confidence until you take them off and your self-esteem shatters.
If you’re using filters that alter your face excessively, you’ll eventually feel incomplete every time you stare into the mirror. When such emotions begin to take over, it may indicate that it’stime to take a break from social media.
2Snapchat’s Craze Died Down After Instagram Stories
If you were super into Snapchat, you probably remember how big Stories were. Fromcreating private Storiesand posting funny vlogs with your friends to sharing a Snap of your dinner, Snapchat Stories were all the rage. Well, that was until Meta launched Instagram Stories.
While Meta initially received a ton of backlash for this move, Instagram Stories quickly overtook Snapchat Stories, which eventually became history. Given that Instagram has a wider daily user base than Snapchat, posting on my Snapchat Story began to feel meaningless once everyone had transitioned. Just like that, there wasn’t any point in sticking to Snapchat Stories other than out of habit and inertia.
3Snapchat Notification Anxiety
Like many others, I once relied on Snapchat for communication. However, I absolutely hated messaging on Snapchat. Whether I was asking my friend for an opinion on a photo I took or making plans, I can’t count the number of times I’d feel anxious when the “[Person’s Name] is typing” notification popped up on my phone.
Every second they kept typing, I would wonder what they were going to say. My mind would race with possibilities if they suddenly stopped typing without sending anything. I’d worry whether I had said the wrong thing or if there was something important they needed to tell me.
The more time passed, the more I’d think about their message. Even if it were a simple conversation with my best friend, this anxiety would consume my mind all day and make it difficult to focus on anything else. The worst part was that Snapchat didn’t offer a feature to turn off this notification. Sure, I could disable my Snapchat notifications entirely, but that wouldn’t help if I were using the app.
4Snap Streaks Are No Longer In
Snapchat Streaks never really made sense to me. While the sense of achievement from sending Snaps back and forth with someone every day for years was understandable, nothing else about it did. It got so crazy that I had streaks with people I no longer talked to. People would even exchange passwords and ask others to send their Snaps just to keep their streaks going! While I hate to admit it, I was probably one of those people who kept up streaks just to fit in when the Snapchat craze was still going strong.
Back then, streaks had an element of creativity. Instead of everyone sending blank backgrounds just to maintain streaks, my friends and I used them to keep in touch with each other’s lives despite living miles away. However, as time passed, we, too, resorted to sending each other black images merely to maintain our streaks.
Despite the craze of Snapchat Stories dying down, I continued to use Snapchat to maintain the years-long streaks I had with some friends. While I was hesitant to take the step myself and end my streaks, deep down, I prayed I’d wake up one day, and all my streaks would be gone. Fortunately, everyone I knew eventually stopped maintaining their streaks, and I took it as a sign to bid farewell to Snapchat entirely.
5Conversations on Snap Feel Meaningless
When you think about it, Snapchat Streaks often involve two people exchanging meaningless images with zero context day after day. Unless you and your friends actively try to make it interesting, the majority end up sending random images like a blank screen or a corner of a room just to maintain the streak.
Ultimately, these conversations become meaningless. Instead of engaging in genuine communication, you’re unknowingly caught in a cycle of sending each other images to maintain a streak. What started as fun eventually felt like a daily obligation rather than something I was doing willingly. Due to this, Snapchat began to feel less like a social media platform and more like a routine task that I needed to complete each and every single day.
6There Are Simply Better Alternative Apps
As Snapchat Stories faded in popularity and Streaks lost their meaning, I gradually lost interest. Way before I decided to stop using Snapchat, most of my friends had already deleted the app from their devices, mostly because there are better apps for basically everything Snapchat can do.
If you use Snapchat to communicate, a dedicatedinstant messaging app for your Android or iOS devicelike WhatsApp is a much better option.
As mentioned above, Instagram has already replaced Snapchat Stories. If you’re a fan of lenses, both Instagram and TikTok offer much superior options. Whatever Snapchat did, other apps can do much better now.
I feel Snapchat appeals to certain groups of people at a certain moment due to specific features. While it had its time, and using it was certainly enjoyable, I can only see the app’s audience declining more as time passes.
