The Art Of The Snap

Peter Levis (’17) sits in a small, darkly lit room, his face a fiery red as he taps his phone with fury. “Peter, what’s wrong?” I ask nervously.

He has just finished another round of scrolling through stupid Snapchat stories.

Peter’s rage is not uncommon. Since the app’s release of the story feature in 2014, users have struggled with the million-dollar question: “Is this ‘story worthy?'”

They must decide between what is appropriate for everyone’s viewing pleasure versus what should be shared only between friends versus what should be seen by no one at all. It’s a fine line to walk, but where is that line?

In the judgment of Casey Loftus (’17), “the point of the Snapchat story is for people to see cool things that they wouldn’t normally see.” He enjoys a good series of videos, where one story leads directly into the next.

“Keep me on the edge of my seat,” Casey commands.

But concerts, sunsets, and meals? Neither Casey nor Peter could wrap their heads around those ones.

“We all eat,” Casey points out. “If I wanted to see the clouds, I could just look outside.”

Peter called the constant concert snapping “immature,” using his best high-pitched middle school girl voice to imitate, “Oh my gosh, I’m at a concert, everybody look!”

So are these guys right? Is it the downfall of our generation to post everything on social media so that everyone knows what we’re doing at all times? Not everyone agrees.

Many would argue that if someone doesn’t like the content or length of a story, they don’t have to watch it. Even Peter agrees that the ability to skip through things you don’t care about “kind of lets you go at your own pace. It’s nice.”

Casey acknowledges this too but adds that a long, tap-through story “is a waste of my time, and yours.”

The Lake Tahoe new year’s music festival Snowglobe drew some of the harshest criticism for concert goers who “over-used” the app there.

But Katie Harrington (’17), who claims that her story was over 200 seconds, defended herself — for her, Snapchat is a way to celebrate her life and capture some of her favorite moments.

“I mean, if it’s my social media account, shouldn’t I be able to post what I want to?” reasoned an annoyed Katie.

Eric Hintz (’17), another avid snapper, voiced a similar sentiment.

“People can post whatever they want; I really don’t care.”

At the end of the day, no matter where you stand on this issue, we can all agree that any kind of action by Snapchat to limit what users can put on their stories would be an attack against free speech. And, since we here in America are not communist Russia, no one wants that.

So let’s enjoy our rights to snap as we please and continue to tap past the ones we don’t like. Snap
and tap, CB, snap and tap.