By Danielle Heims

For the past few years, the Snapchat app has been trending. The app has changed communication with long and short distance friends as well as educating users with news from some sites such as CNN, National Geographic, and/or ESPN.  Snapchat’s focus enables a person to send a picture digitally to another person(s); however, the hook is that the picture will disappear in ten seconds.  And like any social media app, there is a danger of distraction.  Used correctly, Snapchat is a great tool for connecting with loved ones.

Snapchat has other features as well, such as  video chat, text chat, and stories. The video chat allows people to talk face to face rather than exchanging messages. The chat allows you to send text messages to your peers, and they disappear just like a regular snapchat after it has been opened. Finally stories are a way to see what is going on in a friend’s life. For example, users may put a funny video or picture of themselves with their friends on their story.

Despite its benefits, some say that Snapchat is extremely distracting. For example when in class students are often tempted to respond to a snap or focus on their conversation with someone else rather than putting their energies into the class. The same goes for homework– Snapchat could distract a student from completing their homework correctly or efficiently which proves to be problematic.

Surveying a handful of parents, I found they do not like snapchat because they cannot control what their children send. Parents are concerned with the technology and the fact that kids might be sending nude pictures, and they have no way of knowing if they are doing that.  Snapchat does have rules set in place,  but there are so many users that it is impossible to get all the inappropriate users off. Snapchat suggests for any potential victims of sexting to ignore the messages, block the user, and/or tell an adult.

For me personally, Snapchat is amazing because I can communicate everyday with friends in Florida, Connecticut and Utah. It has helped me reconnect with many of my friends rather than them drifting off and becoming acquaintances.  It is a fun app when used correctly to connect.