Streaks
Snapchat has become a pictorial dictionary full of symbols. Emojis that correlate with a specific meaning appear across your “bestfriends list” and codify the type of snapchatting relationship you have with everyone in your recents. It is difficult to recall when they began showing up on the application – each update contributes some feature that makes your status as a snapper more complex – but our proceeding increase in usage is impressive. One symbol in particular differentiates itself from the rest: a miniature flame parked just to the right of a set of numbers. This is the Streak.
A Streak starts between two users if they exchange a snap at least once every twenty-four hours for a minimum of three consecutive days. Most Snappers, especially in our generation, have a minimum of thirty-odd streaks. There are many implications to these streaks, and they sometimes result in ridiculous panics. “I am going away! I won’t have service! Who will keep my streaks for me?”, or the familiar elevated heart rate that ensues seeing the characteristic hourglass timers next to your flames, a warning that your streak will soon break. Snapchat now has a streak-recovery feature that allows users to petition broken streaks back into existence; an email to customer support and the summed exchange of images can be resurrected. Most people relate to the ups and downs of Streak-keeping and receiving, especially the times when Snaps sent back and forth are quite pointless. At least once every twenty-four hours, sometimes twice, sometimes three times, sometimes entirely too many times, you are allowed an insight into whatever these people are doing in their streak-worthy deemed moment, but is it not an impersonal one? The same Snap went to a whole slew of other users; do not be fooled into thinking you’re special.
At the same time, this general consensus on the pointless nature of streaks does not seem to have any effect on their accruement. Impersonality is quickly disregarded as starting a streak signifies an elevated status, the beginning of a close friendship, maybe even a romantic affair. People love to moan about the number of streaks they must “open” each day, yet a busy Snap is more enviable than not. The number of streaks almost quantifies your social standing. Don’t fear, you are still on the minds of a good number of people around the world; you get their streaks.
The creative engineers at Snapchat successfully identified this characteristic of the human psychology and developed the perfect feature to exploit our desire to measure aspects of our lives. Reference the screen-time breakdown in your settings: there is no doubt Snapchat succeeded in increasing the usage of their app. So what if most of these Snaps are completely substanceless? Even if you receive a black screen with some variation of “streaks”, “steaks”, “stekaks”, “strk”, or under extreme time constraints a finger-scribbled “S”, you are still receiving something.
