It is crazy how many people that use social media now. Ten months ago, a study said that there were 400 million people using Snapchat. Now, just imagine how many people misuse it. I can only imagine. That does not mean that everyone that uses it misunderstands the app. They just misunderstand how it should be used.

Anyone under the age of 18 does not know how the app should properly be used because you have to

be the age of 18 or older to use it. The majority of Americans use cellular devices.  Approximately 95% of the population use cellular devices and about 80% use it daily. Many people don’t sit down and think about what’s going on in the real world. That is because they can just look it up on their cell phone. Today at school in my health class, when I looked up from my own phone I counted 14 people sitting near me and 13 of them were on their phone. So I asked the one student why he wasn’t on his phone. He said, “I’m grounded.”

That got me thinking. Why don’t we put down our phones and communicate as a group? That’s because our phone is our little barrier of protection. How some may ask. Well, when you are walking down the hall and there is someone coming your way, but you don’t want to talk to them what do you do? Put your phone in front of your face so you look busy. They don’t talk to you. It’s harder to break that barrier.

Same thing with headphones. You are listening to music and if there is someone walking by you

and they say something, well, you have your headphones in so it is very easy to act like you don’t see

them or you don’t hear them. The probability of them saying something else is to get your attention is very slim to none so it is very easy to get away with it and continue walking.

When it comes to Snapchat, most of the time teens do not even use the typical messaging app for what it is supposed to be used for. They use Snapchat message. Snapchat is so addicting because it has something called a story that you can use if you want everyone to see. There is even a best friends list which is the eight people that you talk to the most. It also keeps the number of days you have been talking to them constantly.

 “I don’t use Snapchat very often, but every time I get on it is very addicting and hard to get off,” Freshman Lucas Anderson said.