“Hey, what’s your Snapchat?” “AMOS” “Hey, let’s start a snap streak!” These are all phrases that are commonly tossed around by teens today. Snapchat was created in 2011 to send pictures to one’s friends daily. Although it was originally intended as a means of communication, Snapchat has very much transformed into what almost seems like a lifestyle.

Teenagers view a Snapchat streak as a main component of friendship. Friends Snapchat each other every day to maintain the fire emoji. Essentially, the more streaks the better. This can be viewed as a competition with people Snapchatting friends, friends of friends, or people they find attractive.

Essentially, the more people that someone Snapchats and has streaks with, the better. These streaks symbolize friendship, even with people one may not even know. Even though the person may have never even met the other Snapchatter, as long as they have the fire emoji on their screen, it is considered a friendship.

“I have a lot of Snapchat streaks. I Snapchat all of my friends and people with mutual friends, but not someone I’ve never necessarily met or heard of,” said junior Deanna Maamen.

If one thinks about it, if two people have a 250-day Snapchat streak, then they would have been Snapchatting for 36 weeks or 8.5 months straight. If a teenager is in a situation in which they cannot Snapchat for a day or more, then they often tend to have a pre-planned way of keeping their streaks alive. Countless measures are taken to keep streaks, including sharing a password and/or setting an alarm.

“I always respond to my streaks in the morning, afternoon, and night; that way I know they won’t disappear. If I can’t use my phone, I have a friend keep my streaks,” said junior Kelhan Bailey. Whenever the hourglass emoji appears on their screen, one bombards another with Snapchats and text messages to save the streak.

“Whenever I lose a streak, I find it really annoying because I wasted so much of my time keeping a streak, and it goes away so easily just because the person forgot to answer,” said sophomore Madelyn Grant.

Even when at odds with a friend, it is common sense to maintain the streak with them. Instead of sending close-ups of your face or silly pictures with filters, people usually proceed by sending pictures of the ground or a blank screen. This is often viewed as a test of friendship.

As a whole, Snapchat streaks are seen as time-consuming in today’s society. They can also be viewed as pointless or as another way for teenagers to make friends. However, when teenagers feel obligated to maintain their streaks every day and become upset if a streak breaks, there clearly lies an issue.