So many companies want to make their product a one-stop, all-inclusive media center where news, sports and entertainment meet. But I don’t want that with Snapchat.
Snapchat is the only form of social media I’m still active on, and all I want to use it for is sending pictures back and forth with friends. That’s it.
For those who don’t use Snapchat, that’s basically the gist of it, but users can also post a “story,” which is a collection of pictures and videos for all their friends to see that remain posted for 24 hours.
For a long time, that’s all Snapchat was. And it was genius.
Now, for the past two years, it’s had the “Discover” feature, which was originally advertised as a way for legitimate news sources like ESPN and CNN to post their own stories pinned to the top of the user interface that would bring news to Snapchat users in the simplest way imaginable.
That’s not exactly how things panned out. The headlining Snapchat Discover “news” stories are mind-numbingly stupid and vulgar, coming from sources like the Daily Mail, Brother and Cosmopolitan.
Topics range from the outfit that one of the Kardashians wore to lunch that day to raunchy dating “advice.”
If it wasn’t for Snapchat, I would not know who Bella Throne or Ariel Winter were. Now, it seems like they both invade my thoughts nearly once a day, uninvited. A recent headline by the Daily Mail that still haunts me almost two weeks later is, “See Bella’s Bloody PDA.” Thanks, but no thanks.
Seriously, sometimes I ponder deleting the app altogether just so I never have to hear about these people ever again.
I use it all the time for its intended purpose, but I’m just fed up with all the extra garbage they include.
You can ignore the featured stories, sure. I don’t click on them, but I still can’t help but read their headlines since Snapchat basically shoves them in your face.
There’s no option to take them off the user interface, and unless you never want to use the stories function of Snapchat ever again, you’re going to keep seeing them.
Obviously, Snapchat is making a killing because there are dozens of contributing sources.
It’s also obvious that users are choosing to view these stories or else Snapchat would have gotten rid of the feature by now.
But it’s a headscratcher that it would choose to cheapen its brand this way.
And to those who work at the Daily Mail or any other one of these worthless “news” sources and are subjected to writing these Snapchat featured stories: How do you even roll out of bed in the morning?
Where does one find their life’s worth between writing an article on Ariel Winter’s “artsy gym selfies” and a click-bait quiz directed at men that asks, “How Well Do You Know the Female Body?” Both of which were real headlines that were at the top of Snapchat’s stories tab not too long ago. They’re far from the worst.
It’s just a cheap way for these “news” sources to make a buck. They’re all in this weird, immoral contest to see just how lewd they can make their content and get away with it, and Snapchat doesn’t really care to take responsibility.
KYLE JOSEPH
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