Snapchat, the platform most widely used by teens to communicate with each other, is ever-evolving and constantly adopting new features to make it more enticing. Did you know they now have a whole section like TikTok called Spotlight? Have you heard about Snap Scores and how it can fuel feelings of unpopularity? Did you know that teens are getting fed all sorts of sexual content, including ads for Only Fans? (What is Only Fans? - Wikipedia)
I knew it was time to delve deeper into the app, and what better way than to invite two emerging adults onto The Screenagers Podcast who had things they wanted to share? The idea for the episode came from one of them, a high school boy I call “Jake” because he had reached out to me for advice. In our conversation, he mentioned how he wished parents would know things about Snapchat that he felt probably many did not know.
I love this important Screenagers Podcast episode, which just dropped yesterday. It is only 16 minutes long, and we hope you will listen — and subscribe to our show (it’s free!). In the meantime, I am sharing some highlights here, including practical parenting tips at the end.
Listen to the episode here: Website // Apple Podcasts // Spotify // YouTube
Let me start with something that Jake says in the episode, “I don't want to speak for other teenagers,” he says, “but I don't think they're going to go and tell their parents, ‘Oh yeah, look at this app, look how dangerous it is, all this bad content.’”
Snapchat was founded in 2011 by two Stanford undergraduates who wanted a way to send risque pictures that would be deleted after sending and receiving them. Today, friends connect on Snap with silly selfies or location shots, which are often pretty benign. What is concerning is that Snapchat’s immediate deletion of content continues to make it a source of risque content and a ripe environment for drug dealers, as I talk about in my latest movie, “Screenagers Under the Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol in the Digital Age.”
“There's a lot of inappropriate content exposure. Any influencer or whatnot can post something that's revealing. It'll just go up on your stories list because Snapchat is going to push out popular stories to all audiences. So it just might end up on a new user’s suggested content,” Jake tells me.
Streaks have been around for a long time — but something less known is Snap Scores.
“Your account has something called a Snap Score,” Jake says. “And basically, you want a higher score, and you do that by sending the most snaps and engaging with the app the most. So, people just send random pictures of anything to other people, and then their Snap Score increases. It keeps you connected with certain people.”
Here is a bit of the conversation that Jake and I had about the ways this can make someone feel unpopular:
Jake: “Like, if yours is low, then that might send the message of more of a quiet person with a closer friend group or something.”
Me: “You're being very judicious. It could make it seem like you're not very popular.”
Jake: “It could. You didn't hear it from me, but, uh, also, like my friend who has his in the millions, he has probably double the amount of friends that I have. And he probably snaps double the amount of people. I think a lot of teens feel like they have to have, like, a high snap score because it looks better.”
Thus, ultimately, this feature can encourage young people to use Snapchat more and send snaps to raise their scores.
Snapchat has evolved to include a section called Spotlight and Discover, where users can see rotating videos from Influencers, similar to Instagram and TikTok, in addition to conversations with disappearing messages.
A girl in college, Dev, who also shares important things in the episode, tells me that she receives a lot of ads for OnlyFans and other illicit content in her feed. OnlyFans is a site and an app that offers inherently sexual content for a fee. “I think my Discover and things that are pushed to me are very either overdramatized and incorrect or oddly sexual,” she says. “It's weird because I'm not even subscribed to them, but they show up on my Discover,” she says.
“... this app makes it impossible to disable different features. In other words, to be able to customize things. For example, to get rid of Discover and or Spotlight. If a parent and teen discussed this and thought that would be the best move, they really don't make that possible.”
Questions to get the conversation started within your family or group:
This episode of The Screenagers Podcast takes us inside Snapchat from the perspective of two young adults. They share with me pitfalls to look out for, and I offer advice to parents and teens on how to best navigate the dangers of illicit content and scores that can leave users feeling less popular.
Listen to the full episode here: Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Website // YouTube
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Snapchat, the platform most widely used by teens to communicate with each other, is ever-evolving and constantly adopting new features to make it more enticing. Did you know they now have a whole section like TikTok called Spotlight? Have you heard about Snap Scores and how it can fuel feelings of unpopularity? Did you know that teens are getting fed all sorts of sexual content, including ads for Only Fans? (What is Only Fans? - Wikipedia)
I knew it was time to delve deeper into the app, and what better way than to invite two emerging adults onto The Screenagers Podcast who had things they wanted to share? The idea for the episode came from one of them, a high school boy I call “Jake” because he had reached out to me for advice. In our conversation, he mentioned how he wished parents would know things about Snapchat that he felt probably many did not know.
I love this important Screenagers Podcast episode, which just dropped yesterday. It is only 16 minutes long, and we hope you will listen — and subscribe to our show (it’s free!). In the meantime, I am sharing some highlights here, including practical parenting tips at the end.
Listen to the episode here: Website // Apple Podcasts // Spotify // YouTube
Let me start with something that Jake says in the episode, “I don't want to speak for other teenagers,” he says, “but I don't think they're going to go and tell their parents, ‘Oh yeah, look at this app, look how dangerous it is, all this bad content.’”
Snapchat was founded in 2011 by two Stanford undergraduates who wanted a way to send risque pictures that would be deleted after sending and receiving them. Today, friends connect on Snap with silly selfies or location shots, which are often pretty benign. What is concerning is that Snapchat’s immediate deletion of content continues to make it a source of risque content and a ripe environment for drug dealers, as I talk about in my latest movie, “Screenagers Under the Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol in the Digital Age.”
“There's a lot of inappropriate content exposure. Any influencer or whatnot can post something that's revealing. It'll just go up on your stories list because Snapchat is going to push out popular stories to all audiences. So it just might end up on a new user’s suggested content,” Jake tells me.
Many young people are overwhelmed by constant social media use, which can displace important activities like sleep, schoolwork, and friendships. Over 200 school districts are suing platforms like Meta for harms related to social media addiction. The blog covers what problematic social media use is from a clinical perspective and how our kids can talk with a friend (or family member) if they are worried their friend might have some level of problematic use.
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A week ago, Instagram announced changes to its rules for “Teen Accounts.” All new teen users will be defaulted into these accounts, and current teen users will transition over the next two months. Instagram’s head of Products, discussed these changes, and one comment surprised me. She mentioned that teens aged 13 to 16 will need parental permission to have a public account, hoping this would encourage dialogue between teens and parents about social media use. However, I feel this still puts too much responsibility on parents when we need broader societal solutions. I discuss this and the rest of the changes in today's blog.
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We have created a table that compares the 4 most common social media platforms and the specific ways they are similar and different. Spoiler alert, they are way more similar than different. It makes perfect sense since companies see what young people use on other apps and incorporate such features into their own apps.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
