Snapchat (“Snap”) Since its release in 2011, Snapchat has remained one of the most popular social media applications that our youth are using to communicate and share their digital lives. With over 293 million daily active users worldwide and over 5 billion Snaps created ev ery day 6 , Snapchat is the de facto medium of communication for students in grades 6 -12. The reason for its popularity is that it turned text communication into a visual experience that allows users to send disappearing photos that leave behind (almost) no evidence and for the most part, don’t become part of a youth’s digital footprint. The foundational feature that makes Snapchat desirable to youth is the disappearing of photos/videos that vanish after they have been opened. Users can set a viewing time of as little as 1 second up to 24 hours after which, once viewed, it will be deleted from the recipient’s device and as the company claims, from Snapchat’s servers 7 . Snapchat allows users to take still photos, record short videos, add text, and create drawings to send to a personalized, and typically private, list of friends. However, nothing stops the recipient from taking a screenshot or using a different device to take a picture or the image or screen recording of the video. Note: if you take a screenshot using the recipient device, Snapchat will notify the sender that you’ve taken a copy. Despite news headlines that suggest Snapchat is “just a sexting app” or one that is only used to send nude photos, this is not the case and represents a very small usage of the app. TO ADD - How To Use Snapchat! (Complete Beginners Guide) (2023) - YouTube
6 Snapchat Demographic Stats: How Many People Use Snapchat in 2023? (backlinko.com) 7 Do Your Snapchats Really Delete After Being Opened? - PSafe Blog
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