Snapchat and its dangers.
Snapchat Logo
Source: http://www.blackpressusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/snapchat.jpg
I honestly can’t believe I haven’t made a blog post on Snapchat before. What a phenomenon! It has completely changed how people interact with each other.
Snapchat is basically a photo messaging app. Users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a list of contacts that you have added. These sent photographs and videos are known as “Snaps”. You are able to set a time limit for how long recipients can view your snaps. They last about 1 to 10 seconds after which they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from Snapchats servers forever unless they are screen shotted.
Snapchat enables users to send countless pictures of anything they want. There is now no more need to give a long winded explanation of that new top, dress, what you are doing, watching, eating, drinking. It’s simple – just send a snap!
Snapchat Idea
Source: Tumblr
While Snapchat has mostly had positive effects it is known for promoting such trends as sexting. Sexting involves the exchange of explicit images that often contain some degree of nudity. Thus as a result, it has led to the sharing of pornographic material of adults as well as children with or without consent between minors.
Pre-teens by which I mean 12-16 year olds and people my own age will send ‘’nude selfies’’ to others which facilitates underage sexual activity. Also the ability for users to screenshot a snap has violated the terms of service of the material being forever deleted. A screenshot is an image taken by the mobile device user to record or take a picture of the visible items displayed on the screen.
This isn’t a very popular practice though according to the media. Snapchat has led to information being over shared but doesn’t every other communication app? It’s all an information overload in the end. It’s as if this technological era has removed the concept of privacy or censorship. And as the saying goes;
Knowledge isn’t power.
Anna Loughran 
