By Hannah Wieditz-

Imagine: you are buying a new prom dress, but you didn’t take your friends shopping with you. You take a quick picture in the dressing room mirror, but an inevitable obstacle prevents you from sending it. The phone company will penalize you an additional fifty cents per receiver to send that incredible, navy blue, strapless beauty to all of your friends’ cell phones. Fortunately, due to a new trend in social media, you may no longer need to pay those extra fees to send a picture message.

Snapchat is currently one of the more popular social media outlets for smartphones and iPods in Mount Vernon High School. The free application allows users to share photos or videos with friends through a Wifi connection, but the receiver can only view the message for a set period of time from 1-10 seconds. It also allows you to type a short message or draw with a digital marker to distort the image. “I use Snapchat because it’s a quick way to send a text and picture to my friends at the same time. I can make funny faces and my friends can only see it for however many seconds I choose,” junior Laura Deininger said.

Although the application sounds fun and entertaining, its description raises some concern about whether it will be used inappropriately, since the picture is deleted in a set amount of time. The application does not prevent the receiver from screenshotting the image that was sent to them. “It’s a totally inappropriate concept,” Spanish teacher Erica Ledger said, “If anything needs to be deleted after a certain amount of time, it should not be created at all. However, as with any form of technology, it can be used for good and not evil, if kept clean and appropriate.”

Mary Young , a math and science teacher at the high school, is concerned that students may be subjected to bullying if this application is abused. If a user sends degrading pictures or messages to a student, that student may have no proof that he or she was being cyberbullied. “I don’t know if there is an edifying reason for Snapchat, other than to tease somebody. I see the greater potential for it to be harmful, and I worry about those kids getting hurt,” said Mrs. Young.

No matter what the technology, there is always a possibility that it may be used inappropriately. As long as students are informed and appropriate, this application can be a comical and pleasant way to interact with friends.