Student Research Guide WQ24/ Snapchat and Impacts on Youth Mental Health

Research Findings: 

• Snapchat is a photo based texting app that consists of temporary pictures and videos sent to friends or posted for everyone to see. Pictures and videos sent to another person can only be viewed once for a maximum of 10 seconds. If content is posted on their Snapchat Story, it is gone after 24 hours (van Essen et al).

• Snapchat has created features that attract youth specifically to engage with the app frequently. This includes Snapchat Streaks, which is a number of days that two Snapchat users send a picture to each other at least once a day, if not more. There is also Snap Map, which allows users to see their friends locations if they have allowed the app to do so, and it is common for friends to watch each others locations (Green 87). 

• Snapchat has taken advantage of youth vulnerability. For example, Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is a common experience for attention seeking youth. To clarify, young people are afraid that if they are not constantly checking media they will miss out on what their friends texts or posts. Snapchat has created short-lived features which are aimed to be used by the younger generation that encourages them to consistently check and engage with the app, leading to unwanted FOMO (van Essen et al). 

• Snapchat’s distinct nature can commonly cause stress, anxiety, and depression. Because of Snapchat, youth are persistently worried about missing out on their friends and partners locations, and how they look when sending pictures (Dunn et al). Cyber-bullying is also a common occurrence on Snapchat, and it is shown to cause depression in victims of the bullying. To add, depression from being bullied is a possible motive for the perpetrator to bully others (Charteris et al).  

• Snapchat can impact boys and girls separately in several ways because they have different motivations to use the app. Girls are more likely to experience FOMO, which means that they are regularly on the app, texting friends, and looking at themselves in the camera feature, leading to possible body image issues. Boys are shown to be stressed about the location sharing because it can create unwanted drama within romantic relationships, as partners are commonly upset by their significant others location (Green 72). 

Advice for future researchers:

There are a few pieces of advice for future researches on this topic. In my research, I found that a couple of the databases did not contain any information regarding the app Snapchat, or how it affects mental health. Therefore, do not feel pressured to have to use multiple databases, because I found that the smaller selection of the databases I used each had plenty of information on Snapchat and its impacts.

Reflection on research experience:

Overall, my research experience was positive and successful. I found many safe, reliable, and unbiased articles about my topic. I would get frustrated that some significant databases did not have a single article about Snapchat, such as the Pew Research Center. The most interesting part was reading biased information, because I had never been so aware of this issue until now. After investigating closely, I became more interested to see how many articles brought up similar and new ideas to support my topic, that I was previously unaware of. Altogether, I really enjoyed researching this topic and can apply this information to my own life now.