Aside from seeing how many likes each post gets, or making sure the right people comment, another important aspect to social media is maintaining streaks on Snapchat. Having to log in once a day, sending pictures to everyone you need, just to watch the tiny number increase by 1 is so important to Gen Z. It doesn’t matter if they’re your best friend, a family member, or a stranger you never even met. You need the highest numbers. Why?
Maybe it’s because I spend a lot of time with people who are older than me, and took a different approach to social media, but I don’t really understand why people maintain streaks. Is there a satisfaction in seeing a picture of a random hallway just to say you’ve have a 100+ day streak? Is there something to brag about by making sure you go on the app at least once a day to send a picture to a group of people?
Now, I can’t lie and say I don’t have streaks, because I do have a few. People have hundreds of others they send snaps to to keep a streak with, whereas I can’t even think of a hundred people I actually like. I appreciate the days where I log out of my social medias to just have a break, but it always comes back to “you broke our streak!!” Like, sorry? I was taking care of myself? I don’t need to respond to a picture of the floor to keep a streak when I can be doing other things that benefit how I feel about myself but sorry you no longer have a number next to my name.
I had a time during high school where I didn’t do streaks except with two of my friends at separate schools because we were always talking through the app. My friends at school had no clue that it was possible to have less than eight best friends on the app until they would look over my shoulder and see two names. I didn’t feel set back and if I wanted to go days without opening that yellow ghost icon, I could. Doing that felt like way less of a commitment and the app was something I actually wanted to use.
This is coming from the girl who never made a “finsta” and has yet to download TikTok, so it may be something I will just not catch up with because of who I was influenced by, but if it means turning something that feels required into something more lighthearted, I will leave that blurry forehead picture on open with no regrets.