By: Nikki Hudak

Social media has been taking over many people’s lives during the past ten years.  Just about everyone has a Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook account.  Snapchat, however, has really started to take over the social media world.  There are so many things a user can do on Snapchat like send pictures and videos.  There are also many other features users can do like put filters on faces, make stickers, post to their snap story, discover, and have snap streaks.

Snapchat is a type of social media where a person takes a picture or video of him/herself or of other people and then sends it to friends.  The interesting thing about Snapchat is that there is a time limit on how long a user can view the picture or video.  The limit is up to ten seconds. Once those ten seconds are up, he/she can replay it only once and then never see it again.  

Snapchat has many features like filters.  By pressing and holding on the screen, a user can put filters on faces.  There are funny filters that make a face look stretched out and sometimes just ugly.  Those kinds of pictures are the ones people send only to their very close friends.  Then there are the pretty filters that make people’s faces look flawless and beautiful, like the ones that put flowers on people’s heads and nice makeup on their faces.  There are also filters that make voices sound different.  The filters are so much fun to play with!

Another feature Snapchat has is snapchat stories.  A snapchat story is where people post a picture or video that their whole friend list can see so they do not have to press every one of their friends on their list.  They just have to press one button to add to their story.  Once a picture or video is posted to a story, their friends can only see it for up to twenty-four hours hours.  Then, it comes off the story and people will never be able able to see it again.  Also, when someone posts something to his/her snapchat story people can swipe up on the picture or video and comment on it like “That’s really cool” or “We should hangout soon.”  The person who posted on his/her snapchat story can also see who all has viewed his/her story and also see if anyone has screenshotted it.  There are also stories users can view that people all over the world can post to.  Sometimes, even the “average Joe” can get a chance to post to these stories and have millions view it.  People can also add celebrities to their Snapchat and see what they post to their stories so they never miss a moment of their favorite celebrity's life.  

Snapchat recently added a really nice feature called discover.  This discover feature allows people see what is happening around the world by giving them articles to read.  The articles range from educational, real-life, sports, food, and pop culture.  There are magazines on the discover feature such as Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, People, Vogue, and National Geographic.  If a user is interested in sports, he/she can go to discover and scroll until he/she sees ESPN and clicks on it to see the latest news about sports.  Also, every week, people can see their horoscope and read about the week they are about to have or what may happen with their love life.  There are all kinds of articles that talk about people’s horoscope.  If a user wants to know what is going on with the Kardashians and other pop culture topics, there is sure to be an article for those people as well.  Then there are articles for the people who like to learn about science and animals.  They can go to the National Geographic articles or BBC America.  There are articles about all kinds of animals, as well as about when people can see the next new moon.  The various articles are interesting to read. If a user enjoys food and finding new recipes, Snapchat has articles about that, too.  People can,  not miss the newest recipes or crazy celebrity diets.

Another new Snapchat feature is stickers.  Stickers are when users take a picture and then tap the scissors button at the top of the screen and cut out a part of the picture they want to have and use whenever they want to.  Maybe they took a funny picture of their friend, and his/her face was funny and they want to keep it to put on pictures later down the road.  They all are saved and can be used anytime to enhance a picture.

The most popular feature about Snapchat nowadays is snapchat streaks.  Many people want to start a streak with people because it is the newest trend.  People may think the term streak is something bad, but on Snapchat, it is positive.  A snapchat streak is how many consecutive days two people can snapchat each other.  It runs on a twenty-four-hour time clock.  This means a user must snapchat that person at least once in a twenty-four-hour period.  When two people start getting close to the time that their streak is about to end, a little timer appears to let them know that they have only four hours left until their snapchat streak is over.  People are very serious about seeing how many snapchat streaks they can have with their friends and how long they can keep their streak going.

These reasons are why Snapchat has become so popular even with the few years it has been out.  Many users find Snapchat to be a great way to communicate with their friends and family.   Everything is based on time with this app from snapchat stories, streaks, and how long users can see a single snapchat.  Along with all the features like discover, filters and stickers.