Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Amherst chapter.

Are you feeling conflicted about keeping or deleting Snapchat? Do you find yourself using and watching Instagram’s “Story” feature instead? You’re not the only one. The 2011 app is being favored less and less, with users increasingly bashing and even deleting it altogether. I started feeling the Snapchat blues a few months ago, and recently just decided to delete the app — and yes, it’s very hard to let the streaks go.

Snapchat can thank some of the most famous pop-culture celebs for its drop in popularity. The beginning of the end for Snap started around early to mid-February with its undesired update. So many users truly despised the update that a Change.org petition was started by Nic Rumsey. In his petition, Rumsey writes: “There is a general level of annoyance among users
many ‘new features’ are useless.” Rumsey released his petition on Change.org about two months ago and has since received 1,255,983 signatures. On Feb. 20, Snapchat replied to Rumsey’s petition, rejecting the idea of returning back to the old format. Instead, Team Snapchat informed its users that they would be creating more updates to allow you to “further customize your own experience on the app.”

TLDR; Team Snapchat completely disregarded its users’ desires, and people are pissed.

One of the most influential pop-culture/media icons, Kylie Jenner, took to Twitter back in February to comment on her views about Snapchat. With a follower count of just over 25 million, Jenner unquestionably impacted the app’s decline. Shortly after Jenner’s tweet, CNN Tech noted that the SNAP stock decreased by 6 percent, leaving with a loss of “about $1.3 billion off the company’s market value.”

Unlike Jenner’s distaste for the app, Rihanna took to Instagram story to speak out against Snapchat’s mockery of domestic violence. Earlier this month, an advertisement on Snapchat shocked and disturbed many of its users — including RiRi. The advertisement accepted to show on Snapchat was for the game “Would You Rather” pictured below. Rihanna posted a mini-rant via Instagram story, saying, “You spent money to animate something that would bring shame to [domestic violence] victims.”

With a follower count of 61.1 million, Rihanna’s fans took to Twitter to announce their following in deleting the app. After the frenzy on social media, Snapchat responded to Rihanna through a statement sent to The Verge. Since Rihanna’s post, SNAP stock has dropped by about 5 percent and has reportedly lost about $1 billion.

Worldwide social media influencer Chrissy Teigen has tweeted multiple times criticizing Snapchat. On March 24, she informed her fans that she decided to discontinue using the app altogether. While it is obvious that Teigen both dislikes the Snap update and its vulgar advertisement, many other media influencers agree and are following in the footsteps of both pop-culture icons and their fans. 

Are you next in line for deleting Snapchat?

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Through her experience of living internationally throughout her childhood, Christi has firsthand knowledge of other countries, cultures, and religions. She is a Communication major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and has been able to use her writing both in an academic and leisurely setting to spread cultural acceptance, awareness, and growth. Her favourite topics to write about include travel, feminism, politics and social life.
UMass Amherst Contributor

U Mass Amherst '23

Contributors from the University of Massachusetts Amherst