Harmful Effects of Social Media's Techniques of Dragging us in Outside of the Platforms 1/5/18

        Recently, I have felt more and more trapped in social media. I have started to realize different platforms' techniques to suck users in and keep them there. One example of this is Instagram's smart search feed which picks out posts you'll like based off of what you've previously viewed and liked. However, the most prominent example of this would be Snapchat streaks--where the user has to send their friend a picture everyday and expects one back from their friend. Snapchat keeps track of how many days in a row you've consecutively you and your friend have sent pictures back and forth. They add that number of days along with a couple emojis next to your friend's username.
        There are a few problems this causes both in real life and on social media. The first, and most damaging, problem is that people assume that because you don't return their streaks, you don't like them. And if you break a streak with somebody on purpose, they are convinced you are trying to distance yourself with them. When in reality, you just don't want to have the obligation to send them a picture everyday.
        This leads to the next problem being that people stress over trying to keep their streaks. I have seen people worrying when trying to send their streaks somewhere that has poor connection. This is because Snapchat breaks a streak if you don't continue the back and forth picture sending with someone at least once a day. On top of this, a little timer emoji appears next to the streak count to make people extra stressed.
        Lastly, I am concerned because streaks (and other means of approval on social media such as liking posts) have become a way for some to quantify how "friends" they are with someone. People get unsettled when they think someone's their friend but doesn't return their streaks or like their posts. In reality, that person may be too busy to be on social media, not keep streaks, or actually not like you or your posts-but most likely one of the first two.