#38 Negative Effects of Snapchat For Teens - SmartSocial.com Podcast by Josh Ochs

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Are your kids addicted to Snapchat? Do you wonder the long term effects that Snapchat can have on them?

In this episode Josh walks you through some of the worst features of Snapchat. You will learn what a Streak is, how students share passwords and also how the Snap Map feature is dangerous.

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Teen Snapchat statistics

• People under the age of 25 use Snapchat for 40 minutes on average
  
  every day, more than Instagram’s latest stat for the same demographic


• Snapchat ranks as the most popular social media site among teenagers


• Users 25 and younger visit Snapchat over 20 times per day

Sources:

1,

2,

3

Teen social media statistics

• 91% of 16-24 year olds use the internet for social networking


• Social media use is linked with increased rates of anxiety,
  
  depression and poor sleep


• Social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes and
  
  alcohol

Source:

1

2

What is a Streak?

• A Streak is given to users who have sent each other Snaps
  
  consistently for two days or more


• A fire emoji (🔥) will appear next to a friend’s name along with a
  
  number. The number indicates how many days you have consistently
  
  messaged that user back and forth

Snapchat can be addictive for teens

According to ABC News:

• 
  

  Snapchat has mechanisms in place to incentivize teens to become daily
  
  users with a phenomenon called the Streak

  
  


• 
  

  Experts say Streaks can create a concerning hierarchy of friendship
  
  that can leave some teens afraid to disappoint others if they drop a
  
  Streak

  
  


• 
  

  “The more you cannot leave one day without being on social media, the
  
  more your identity gets wrapped up in it [and] the more likely it’s
  
  going to have negative effects,” an expert warned

  
  

According to Business Insider:

• Snapchat Streaks have become the most important metric in social
  
  media for teens Because teens invest so much time in their Streaks,
  
  it’s common to ask friends to “Streak” for you if you’re unable to
  
  log on — for example, if you got your phone taken away


• “One of my friends actually called me while I was sleeping to make
  
  sure our Streak would still be going,” a student said. “He called me
  
  four times and woke me up to keep the Streak alive. He was like, ‘Are
  
  we still Streaking?'”


• “A big part of [Snapchat Streaks] is social acceptance,” a
  
  15-year-old student admitted. “Having more streaks makes you feel
  
  more popular”

According to Psychology Today:

• It is not uncommon to hear a tween bragging about the number of
  
  streaks they have going as well as about the length of each of these
  
  streaks. The longer the streak, the higher it’s perceived value


• It is not uncommon to find a 12-year-old user who set up a Snapchat
  
  account (without their parents knowing). Streaks may really matter to
  
  your tween. Suddenly asking your tween to stop keeping up their
  
  Streaks could really stress them out

“Snap Map” lets people locate your teen

• 
  

  This feature lets teens “pinch to zoom” on their story page and view
  
  the map where their friends are posting from

  
  


• 
  

  Predators and scammers use geolocation to know where your kids are at
  
  (and when you’re not home, for a possible robbery)

  
  

Teens share their Snapchat usernames with strangers

• 
  

  Many teens add their Snapchat username into their Instagram bio which
  
  can be very dangerous

  
  


• 
  

  Even if an Instagram profile is private, anyone can see what is in
  
  the bio. This makes it easy for strangers to follow along on
  
  someone’s Snapchat profile

  
  

Teens share their Snapchat passwords with friends

• 
  

  In order to maintain a Streak, teens and tweens will share their
  
  Snapchat login credentials with friends

  
  


• 
  

  Friends with your password can make inappropriate posts on your
  
  account that can negatively affect your future in a big way

  
  

Potential negative effects of Snapchat & social media

Anxiety & depression: Research suggests that young people who spend more than 2 hours per day on social media are more likely to report poor mental health, including psychological distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression).

Sleep: Numerous studies have shown that increased social media use has a significant association with poor sleep quality in young people. Using phones, laptops, and tablets at night before bed is also linked with poor quality sleep.

Body image: Body image is an issue for many young people, both male and female. Studies have shown that when women in their teens and early twenties view Facebook for only a short period of time, body image concerns are higher compared to non-users.

Cyberbullying: Bullying during childhood is a major risk factor for a number of issues including mental health, education and social relationships, with long-lasting effects often carried right through to adulthood.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): FOMO has been robustly linked to higher levels of social media engagement, meaning that the more an individual uses social media, the more likely they are to experience FOMO.

Best & worst social media apps for teens’ mental health

Best:

• YouTube


• Twitter


• Facebook

Worst:

• Snapchat


• Instagram

What parents say about Snapchat

New Snapchat Discover Stories regularly have sexually explicit images and articles — not for kids! We decided to let our oldest daughter (13 at the time) have the popular app, Snapchat a year or so ago in the context of sending fun filtered videos and pictures to her trusted friends. However, the app has gone through many revisions since we first allowed it. It now has Discover Stories with pictures and links to articles which appear front and center when you open the app. For the past week or so, I have tried to look at these every day to see what these articles are promoting. Many have steamy almost nude graphics which are visible before snapchatters click through. This is the norm, not the exception. And the article names are often sexually explicit — “Celebs tell stories of how they lost their virginity,” “4 Emojis for Steamy Sexting,” “A Guide to Lady Parts for Guys,” and more. One this past week was about orgies…. These explicit, often trashy articles and pictures have been present every single day I have looked. The app says it is appropriate for kids ages 12+ but in my opinion as a parent, this is definitely not the case! If you are considering for your tween/ teen, I recommend opening an account first for yourself and monitoring the articles for a week or so. Then decide what you feel is appropriate for you family.

BE A PARENT. I have read a lot of reviews on Snapchat. I’m frankly appalled at the parents that say my kid use it appropriately there’s nothing wrong with it. I’d have to ask how do you know your kid is using it appropriately? The videos the pictures they all disappear within 5 to 10 seconds of someone sending them. However there are ways to save the pictures that people want to save that you send them. So if you’re 13 or 14 year old girl or boy is sending inappropriate content of any kind comma it can be saved and sent out to the world. It is very easy to friend people on it. It is very easy to connect with people that your family have no clue who they are. It is not that I don’t trust my children. But I do not trust their thirteen-year-old judgement. They are not developmentally mature to make the right decisions without guidance. Snapchat provides 0 ways for a parent to guide their child. As an adult with my adult children I have fun with it. But it is not something I’m willing to let my 13 year old daughter be apart of. I’m willing to bet that most of these parents that think it is just fine haven’t picked up their child’s phone and gone through they’re content on much of anything. That’s a generalization. I get it. But please look at your kids phones and text messages and Facebook and Instagram. It is your job and you’re right as a parent.

Source.

What can parents do?

• Become a Snapchat expert in our Parent University program so you can
  
  be involved with your student on the app and keep them safe


• Know your child’s username, follow them, get involved, have
  
  discussion, and monitor their Snaps


• If your student can easily navigate the new update, make them the
  
  expert and have them teach you more about the app


• Have your student watch our Parent University videos that will show
  
  them that anything they post on social media (including Snapchat) has
  
  the ability to last forever


• Demonstrate the ways that negative posts can come back to hurt their
  
  reputation in the future


• Remind your teen that it’s okay to be silly and have fun on social
  
  media as long as they are positive (with a little bit of gratitude)

Read more here: https://smartsocial.com/blog/

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View the top 50+ good and bad teen apps in our Popular App Guide page for Parents and Educators.

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