The world is not the same as it was.
I still remember that fateful morning over a month ago when our lives were irrevocably changed. As I climbed out of bed and promptly tripped over my basketball (maybe I should consider putting it somewhere else), I went to take a relaxing morning shower. All was right with the world, and it was a good day.
When I got out, the first thing that I did was check my phone. Everything seemed normal at first, but if we were able to know when tragedies were about to occur, then we would be able to prevent them. This was not preventable.
Twitter was business as usual with the usual screaming about politics. Instagram appeared to be normal, as everyone was still trying to make their lives look as perfect as possible. And yes, your grandmother apparently still uses Facebook, and no, no one is going to buy your formal dress on the Union University Closet page. But then I finally pulled up Snapchat, looking to keep up several of my “streaks,” and…
What in the world is this?
Everything was different than it was the night before due to an apparently new “update.” The update was nothing short of a complete redesign. “Stories,” short videos that people post which all of their followers can view, now appear on the same page where people receive actual snapchats. The interface has little resemblance to the older one. Also, everything new is bad, and everything old is perfect, apparently. When it comes to Snapchat, the appeal to tradition fallacy obviously does not exist.
If people had actually asked for an update, then it would make sense. But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old Snapchat. Why would they try to fix something that isn’t broken? Also, auto-updating a popular app while we are asleep? How would you feel if you woke up in the morning and your dog has been replaced by an “updated” one? That is probably not the best analogy, but I digress.
It also doesn’t help matters much that nearly everyone universally agrees that the update is terrible. The backlash against the update has been harsh and swift. 800,000 people signed a Change.org petition to change Snapchat back to its old format. A tweet calling for the removal of the update had over one million retweets.
Union University students, who long for nothing in the physical world and recognize that Christ is all we need, have also complained incessantly as they have found it more difficult to send selfies of themselves to other people who are also sending selfies.
“The new Snapchat update is the ugliest piece of software ever to disgrace the retina display of my phone screen and the actual retinas in my eyes at the same time,” freshman David Cooper said. “And I am only partially joking.”
Yikes.
Senior Giann Hoosier was slightly less dramatic but still affirmed the majority opinion.
“I deleted my Snapchat for Lent,” she said. “Honestly, I may never re-install it since I just didn’t like the update. I couldn’t find my story for several hours after I posted it.”
It really is now a slippery slope for mankind. First, we will stop using Snapchat, leaving us to only use Twitter, Instagram and *gulps* Facebook. Next, we will be primitive savages wandering around in caves. It is only the logical next step.
But all joking aside, what has happened to us?
Ladies, this next paragraph will be strictly for the guys, so if you all would like to skip it, that would be wonderful.
Gentlemen, there was a time in the not-too-distant past when we truly knew how to court and pursue women. Now, we send girls snapchats to show them that they interest us. I don’t pretend to understand women, but there is one thing that I know for sure: they definitely love it when you take two seconds to send them a selfie of your double-chin; they definitely don’t like it when you try to have a conversation to get to know them better over the phone, or better yet, talk to them in person (sarcasm implied). Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the time when men called the women that they pursued rather than hiding behind a selfie or a text message.
Ladies, you may now join us once more.
There was a time when we truly knew how to talk to each other. When I was growing up, if I wanted to talk to someone, I had to either call them or simply go to their house. Now, I could just send them a text, Snapchat or Twitter direct message to get their attention. This has certainly made our lives easier in some ways, but it also affected our ability to communicate in all of our relationships. In my opinion, it has lessened our ability to communicate.
Our social media culture has truly gone way too far. We have reached a point in our collective consciousness that there is a huge outcry whenever someone simply changes an app that we like. Now why is that?
The simple answer is idolatry. Social media apps like Snapchat have provided us with ways to glorify ourselves on a scale that was never possible before. We love that feeling of affirmation that it gives us. When a hundred people see that Snapchat story of us doing something funny, we feel like people care about the stupid things we’re doing in our free time (they don’t). There are people out there who don’t judge people by their character, but rather by their number of Instagram likes.
And when someone alters that feeling of power that we have, it becomes very easy for us to lash out.
Perhaps what our society needs is a fresh dose of perspective. If one of the only things that we can complain about is a Snapchat update, then life must be pretty good. And honestly, if everyone decided to stop using Snapchat and people became more sociable as a result, then I would be all for it.
In the meantime, it’s important to remember that the world will not end because a popular app is not as easy to use as it once was. However, if you devote too much energy to social media, there is a chance that the world will pass you by.
