The Good Life

The Good Life: The Snap Chat buddy you can do without!

The Good Life

Gemma Good

Published: Fri 9 Jun 2023, 6:01 PM

I didn’t realise the obsession people have with Snapchat. Users amounted to 383 million in the first quarter of 2023. Among the newest features of the app is the introduction of the My AI feature which allows users to make conversation with what essentially is a robot, what Snapchat have deemed “conversational artificial intelligence.”

I find myself going on the app from time to time, usually out of pure boredom to check stories, especially when I was abroad to keep up with what people were doing at home. When I logged on to see that I had an AI robot available to speak to me whenever I wanted, I thought it was a step too far.

I can see some benefit, as in if you need to ask a practical question, you can get an instant answer. However, isn’t that the purpose of the internet? I don’t think convenience or ease of use for users is the reason Snapchat have decided to incorporate the AI buddy into their app. Its presence serves to take advantage of young people, their data, such as usage, the questions they ask, and tailoring their experience. In this way it can be made more enjoyable for them, keeping them on the app for longer.

A common fear among users of Snapchat is being left undelivered, or worse yet unopened. When a message is sent, be it a snap (a picture) or a side chat (a messaging platform) a blue or red arrow, depending on the means used to send the message, will indicate if the message has been opened or not. I remember the feeling of somebody opening your message and not replying, or worse yet having sent your message and it not being opened at all by the receiver. It is only when I look back that I realise the messages I sent contained nothing of importance. This fear still resonates among Snapchat users around the world and is the reason you will see today’s young people sending pictures of their faces to their friends. To me, this is Snapchat playing with people’s emotions in order to keep them using the app.

Snapchat came into being in 2011. I joined snapchat in 2015, when I was 13-years old. I barely got to experience the best friends list. This list showed your snapchat friends who you were snapping (talking to) the most. I remember the havoc associated with this feature. Friends seeing who you spoke to the most, circulating rumours about budding relationships, etc. The craic was good, and many people would love to see the return of the feature, but I do think it was a serious breach of privacy.

With the abolishment of the best friends list came the introduction of filters. Filters are augmented reality images which you can put on faces, giving you dog ears, cat ears, love heart eyes, you get the picture. Filters have been detrimental to people’s self-confidence, and extremely beneficial for the cosmetic surgery industry. Studies have shown a positive trend for the industry linked to social media, with people presenting wanting the smaller nose or carved jawline that the filters gave them. On the other hand, social media filters have also seen the rise of low self-esteem, self-confidence and increased body dysmorphia issues.

Snap streaks were also introduced at around the same time as filters. Streaks are a count of the number of days where you consistently snap somebody. For example, if I send a snap to a friend for five days in a row, then I will have a five-day Snapchat streak with that person. My longest streak was around the 200 mark, and I had several of them. My days consisted of sending a picture of my face to my friends, and some of the time to people I barely knew. The highest streak to date is between two girls known as Hannah and Lauren, who have a 2,663-day streak. Yes, streaks take some form of commitment, however I think the efforts could be better placed.

When I went on Snapchat all these years ago, purely because all my friends were on it, I did not think all these features would become a reality. Each of them leading to now. Thirteen is the legal age to have a Snapchat account. So early teenage years, first discos, first time tasting alcohol. I was thinking, let’s ask my AI how to mask the smell of alcohol. In the response, it told me: “You can try using mouthwash or chewing gum to freshen your breath and using cologne or perfume to mask the smell on your clothes.”

I used my friend’s Snapchat account to get this response. Using mine, I told my AI that I was trying to hide the alcohol consumption from my parents, in which case it told me that telling my parents was a better idea. I know young people have access to all of this information online, however masking the AI as a ‘friend,’ Snapchat is making it too accessible to young people. It’s scary to think what future versions of the app will bring.

Insert: You can name your AI robot to make it seem like a friend on Snapchat.