Social Media and Its Impact: Snapchat’s popularity, addiction and Digital wellness in 2023

Social Media and Its Impact Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app that allows users to send photos and videos, known as "Snaps," to their friends or post them as Stories that are viewable for a limited time. Snapchat gained popularity shortly after its launch in September 2011. By 2013, Snapchat was widely recognized as a popular social media platform, especially among teenagers and young adults. 

Is it still popular?

Snapchat in 2023: There’s a big misconception about this app that it is not that relevant for users now. But to your surprise, it’s still very popular and is used mostly by the youth. 

According to data, As of the second quarter of 2023, photo and video-sharing app Snapchat had 397 million daily active users worldwide, up from 383 million global daily active users in the first quarter of 2023.

Social Media and Its Impact However, its market share is declining, and it faces increasing competition from other social media apps. This data shows that it still has a loyal user base and unique features such as disappearing messages, stories, snap maps, lenses and filters, emojis, memories, chat stickers, scan features and much more.

The reality of Snapchat 

Social Media and Its Impact Snapchat is an app where you can use millions of filters to change how you look in pictures and then post them. This is harmful for the viewers who think that they aren’t good enough. Using filters and fooling people about your facial beauty is something toxic about the app.

On the other hand, the benefit of using filters is that you can make your photos and videos more visually appealing by adjusting colours, contrast, brightness, and saturation. This can help your content stand out and look more professional.

Reminder: If you are a Snapchat user, remember to not believe everything you see on the app. Everybody is hiding something behind those pictures as well trying to portray their life’s more aesthetic than they already are.

Is it addictive?

Snapchat’s addiction in 2023: The app is addictive for people as it binds you to it in a way that you won’t be able to stop using it even if you want to.

Addictive features on Snapchat: 

Streaks: Sending snaps to your friends every day to maintain the streak of consistent snap chatting with each other. To maintain those streaks, nobody dares to forget about the app. This is a concept that became very popular around 2018-2019 and is still popular.

Snapchat Premium: Some users may become addicted to interactions with influencers or celebrities on Snapchat Premium, where exclusive content and interactions can be purchased.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Snapchat's ephemeral nature creates a sense of urgency. Users may feel compelled to check the app frequently to avoid missing out on time-sensitive content.

Social Media and Its Impact Snapchat’s popularity, addiction and digital wellness: Mostly among teenagers, it’s still fun for them to maintain streaks and show off their life on snaps, to look cool in front of people.

The sense of social validation that you get is one of the best things about Snapchat for people. You feel as though people like you when you share cool snaps every time you are doing something fun. And even when you are not having fun, the pictures should be showing you as having fun. That’s how the Snapchat users or social media users think in general.

However, if you really want to be on social media and you seriously enjoy using it. Using Snapchat has benefits also such as 

Privacy: The app’s privacy feature is really secure as when you send your snaps, there is a view once kind of option and also if somebody takes a screenshot, you will know about it. Messages also disappear after viewing them, this is a good quality in the app.

Social Media and Its Impact Rise of content creators on Snapchat: it’s a good platform for content creators as they can share their content on Snapchat as well. Staying active and engaging with the audience, posting stories on their channels every day is what content creators on Snapchat generally do. It’s a good platform for budding content creators also.

Friendship Focus: Snapchat prioritizes connections with friends, as opposed to amassing followers or likes, which can lead to more genuine interactions.

Digital wellness on Snapchat

Screen Time Tracking: Snapchat provides users with the option to monitor how much time they spend on the app daily. This feature can raise awareness of excessive usage and encourage users to cut down on screen time.

Social Media and Its Impact Report and Block: Snapchat provides easy-to-use tools for reporting and blocking users who engage in harmful or harassing behaviour, fostering a safer online environment.

Digital Wellbeing Resources: Snapchat has a section in its app called "Here For You," which provides resources related to mental health and wellness, including articles and access to crisis support.Social Media and Its Impact

Unfollow and Unfriend: Regularly review your friend list and unfollow or unfriend accounts that don't contribute positively to your digital experience.

Social Media and Its Impact So, this app can be used for fun and professionally as a content creator only after you understand how to use the app in a way that doesn’t affect your mental state and well-being. Using features to control over usage of the app is also important to be taken into consideration while using the app. 

Written By Manasvi Singh