hey guys can you just all help me out of

here I'll help me out here a little I

wanted to post something on my snapchat

story so could you all just smile there

let me just put a cute filter okay and

it's posted okay

so let me tell you all the story I spent

all of last summer in India where I

didn't have access to the Internet at

all without internet I had a great time

with my cousins and my grandparents but

I lost contact with all my friends and I

lost all my snapchats cheeks as well so

for those of you who don't use snapchat

it's basically an app where people chat

through pictures a snapchat streak is a

number that appears next to the name of

a person with whom you share a snap or

an image every 24 hours and this number

increases with the amount of days that

you have sent a snap to one another but

if one of you forgets to send a snap or

just doesn't send a snap at all within

24 hours the new and your friend lose

the streak and you guys have to start

over because a lot of snapchat users

maintain so many streaks it's become

easier for many of them to do this

faster for every single day by just

sending a plain black screen to all of

the people they maintain streaks with

now back to my story so on the first day

of school I was very excited to meet

everyone especially my best friend whom

I hadn't texted or seen in two months

but a few days into school I started to

realize that my best friend had another

group of friends and I felt like she

didn't really want to talk to me anymore

and why did this happen it was because

we had in texted each other in two

months and she texted other people more

than me so they became her best friends

she was also kind of annoyed that I lost

a hundred day snap streak that we had at

this point I started to realize that our

friendship was nothing but sending black

screens to each other for a hundred days

just to keep a streak going let me give

you an example of what our conversation

looked like so let's say on Sunday I

woke up and

around 10:00 a.m. I sent her this and

then a few hours went by and she opened

my snap and she replied with this and

then the next day morning I woke up and

the first thing I did was check my phone

and I decided to reply with this and

then she probably got bored of our

conversation so she decided to change it

up a little and she replied with this

and this was basically the only

conversation that we had for a hundred

days I also started to realize that our

past hangouts were only of us taking

tons of pictures to post on Instagram

and texting our other friends about just

how much fun we were having Instagram is

another social media platform where

people share photos and videos with

their followers the followers are the

people who are able to view and like the

photos of the people who post so when I

realized that my best friend and I spent

so much time just clicking pictures and

then choosing which one to post and then

looking at how much how many likes each

photo got I was really shocked because

even though we were together all this

time we really didn't know each other

very well so I did some research on this

and I found out that I wasn't the only

one that there were other teens in a

similar situation an article by Business

Insider said that streaks were a proof

of friendship Peter Santa Anna an 18

year old living in Honolulu said if you

lose your streak you lose your

friendship Katie Clark another teenager

told Business Insider on snapchat

streaks develop a level of friendship

between people the longer your snap

streak is the better friends you are and

a fellow sophomore at DAA told me I have

21 streaks but I only chat with a few of

them on an everyday basis after some

more research I came across an article

by Virginia Tech University wherein

Shalini Mishra the leader of the tech

team the leader of the research team

said even without active use the

presence of mobile technologies has the

potential to divert individuals from

face-to-face

actions thereby undermining the depth

and character of these connections so

I'm sure I was able to make sense of

this completely I was motivated to share

my thoughts on meaningful and

superficial relationships and how social

media can really have a huge impact on

friendships apps such as social media

apps such as snapchat and Instagram

could be a great way to keep in touch

with friends and friends and family but

over dependence on these could lead many

people especially teenagers to

unknowingly build relationships that are

meaningless let me give you a few

examples of superficial relationships we

have a hundred day streak together we're

best friends we don't have a streak

we're not really that close I've even

heard stories where teens cry because a

high number streak was lost or all of

their streaks were lost sometimes moving

on from snapchat people want to be

friends with a person only because the

photos they post on Instagram are

aesthetic and not because of their

overall personality not because they're

funny sweet kind or smart and I find

this to be a very big problem so why do

people value texting so much why is it

so addictive and why is it considered

better than talking texting releases a

chemical in our body called dopamine

this is the pleasure chemical that makes

us happier there's the same chemical

that is released in our body when we

fall in love according to Fisher @al and

this is why texting is so addictive and

it gives us so much pleasure

also as Huffington Post writes talking

is considered an old-folks thing by many

teens and texting is considered to be

quicker and more efficient and for these

reasons we tend to get addicted to

texting and social media which ruins our

relationships and causes us to build

superficial friendships and stead of

meaningful ones now what do I mean when

I say a meaningful relationship it's

basically a kind of bond that is very

special it's a kind of bond that you can

share with only a few people like your

best friend or your really close friends

now I'll ask you some questions that I

got from an online newspaper called

elite daily and if your answer is

definitely a yes for all of these then

you and your friends definitely share a

meaningful bond with one another

here goes the questions when you hang

out do you spend most of your time

together doing something worthwhile or

talking about something worthwhile do

you feel comfortable asking them for

help and will they actually help you

talk to them frequently not just a few

times a year do you consider yourself to

have a higher level of closeness with

this person then you have with all of

the other people you interact with and

lastly is face-to-face interaction your

main form of communication if your

answer was an O or even a maybe then

here are some ways to make your

relationship more meaningful way number

one forget your phone - a hangout

eliminate any excuses to bring your

phone along for example meet at

someone's house so communication doesn't

become a problem

bring a Polaroid camera with you with

which you could take pictures so you

don't have to use your phone use a

landline at your friend's whorehouse to

call your driver your parents while

picking you up in this way you'll

actually be able to spend some quality

time with your friends instead of your

smartphone way number two if completely

being off the phone is too hard then

take baby steps set a limited time for

your phone when you're hanging out with

your friends and help each other out in

this way number three engage yourselves

in other activities like cooking or

baking or going for a walk or jog

together anything that doesn't involve

your phone or any other social media

apps this will also help you and your

friends make some memories together

because imagine if the only memory of

you and your friend being together was

when both of you were on your phones

we're number four lose all of the

streaks that you keep just for the sake

of having a streak rather than for the

sake of friendship or conversation ask

yourself if you really know the person

with whom you have

highest cheeks and if you would like to

know someone with whom you don't share a

streak

and lastly way number five get to know

your friends better and by knowing I

don't mean who stalk them on social

media or which angle they look best in

while taking a photo or at which time of

the day they send streaks I mean that's

good to know but go beyond get to know

their family better get to know their

likes and dislikes their favorite

pastimes remember that these tips are

the building blocks of a relationship

and they can't be done overnight

they take time to implement and if you

and your friends really commit to

following them for at least a month or

two then you'll definitely be able to

get into a habit of following them

thereafter and hopefully be able to

bring some depth to your relationship

overall it's completely ok to use apps

such as snapchat and Instagram but if

you get too attached to these it could

ruin your relationships especially your

friendships by changing your habits now

you can stop social media from taking

control over your life before it's too

late

thank you