Written by Paolo Vera, Year 12
With the “Great Instagram Purge of 2014” and the addition of the infuriating Facebook messenger, it has been quite a year for App updates. However, none of these changes have been as socially revolutionary as the latest alteration of everyone’s favorite app, Snapchat. Without warning, Snapchat removed its most controversial and thought-provoking feature: the list of Snapchat best friends.
To say that this modification was unexpected would be a gross understatement. As per usual, people took to Twitter to express their rage. Perhaps our society was simply not ready for this drastic reform. Checking everyone else’s Snapchat best friends was a habit that we all did but refused to admit to. Snapchat best friends were a way for us to peek into the personal lives of acquaintances we rarely talked to; they were an indicator of who liked who, a barometer of online romantic relationships. In this way, Snapchat was vastly more personal than Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
However, the feature presented problems of its own: the notorious “psycho girlfriend (or boyfriend).” Because of the romantic implications often associated with Snapchat, people were often quick to jump to conclusions when they saw their significant other on some other girl/boy’s Snapchat best friends, deeming them unfaithful. Somehow, Snapchat best friends have become synonymous with adulterous relations – even when this might not always be the case.
Not to fear though, the creator of Snapchat has promised to bring back the best friends feature. Once again, we can find out who “bae” is talking to.
