Written evidence submitted by
Ben, Maddy and Holly, The Castle School, Thornbury (SMH0066)

Report on: Snapchat’s benefits and drawbacks

Introduction

In the UK 61% of 18-29 year olds use Snapchat, with 187 million active users worldwide. Currently there are no laws or restrictions that affect Snapchat; however there are some well-known concerns within the teen community about the platform. It has been a popular conversation topic within the media as to whether or not Snapchat has a negative effect on teenagers. This report will investigate the positives and negatives of Snapchat and the impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of the children.

Benefits

In a recent study at The Castle School, of a class of children age 14-15, 62% of people said that they use Snapchat every day to stay in contact with each other outside of school. Since using the app students have said they feel more confident because you have the choice of who to share photos to, such as friends, family and the general public. Snapchat can increase social interaction with those who would otherwise struggle in real life and can help with introverted traits, whilst also providing a platform to organise more social meetups.

Drawbacks

On the other hand, social media can be a time consuming addiction and become a negative factor in a student’s self-esteem and self-image. They can become attached to their phones, talking to others and image online. On snapchat there is a unique feature called streaks, which can demand students to always send messages and pictures daily, even when they don’t want to. It can lead to a shorter attention span, with many users doing worse in English at a young age because of their natural “text speech” and incomplete information in sentences.

Conclusion

To conclude snapchat has many positives and negatives for teenagers, increasing social interactions and the sharing of media, such as photos, to stay in contact with relatives. However it also decreases attention span, self-esteem and image can be negatively affected and it can reduce their English grade. I believe that there should be a better law system on the ages that are allowed to view the app and the contact that is uploaded to these sites should be monitored more closely.

Thank you for reading

March 2018