Newspaper: Snapchat function creates uncertainty among young people

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A paid feature Snapchat allows users to see their ranking in their friends’ digital spheres. This can give young people an increased sense of anxiety, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

– A lot of kids my age have trouble distinguishing best friends on Snapchat from actual best friends in real life, 15-year-old Callie Schietinger told the WSJ.

In Snapchat+ there is a function where you can see all your friends ranked as part of a solar system. Based on how you communicate with each individual, you will be able to see how you rank with different friends. Perhaps you are Mercury, which is the closest to your friend, or Uranus, which is the furthest away.

Snapchat’s solar system is on by default, but can be turned off. Legislators, doctors and parents are now turning their attention to the impact such functions can have on children and young people’s mental health.

The boyfriend was not Mercury – became a bad mood

Schietinger explains to the WSJ that many people her age have trouble distinguishing between best friends on Snapchat and best friends in real life. She herself had also experienced that there was a bad atmosphere when her lover discovered that he was Neptune, and not Mercury in her solar system. It was allegedly not improved by the fact that a boy friend had the rank of Merkur.

In other words, someone else was a “closer friend” than himself.

Besides Schietinger’s experiences, there must be several young people who have experienced friendships splintering and being destroyed due to knowledge of ranking in each other’s app solar systems. Some claim that young people have signed up to Snapchat+ only to check their status with a crush.

Several young people WSJ spoke to believe that it can have a negative effect on young people that the Snapchat app ranks them, even if the rankings are personal to you, and thus not visible to anyone other than the account holder. 17-year-old Maximilian Milovidov claims to the WSJ that it is quite common to switch phones to look at each other’s ratings.

Blames social media for crisis in mental health

A number of different people have recently spoken out critically about the impact of social media on young people’s mental health. Among these is the surgeon Vivek Murthy, who is said to have stated that young people are susceptible to peer pressure, opinions and comparisons.

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is said to have signed a bill to prevent children under 14 from being on social media. He stated that being buried in such devices is not the best way to grow up.

Just under a week ago, four school boards in Canada are said to have sued Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for $3 billion, based on what they claim is a mental health crisis. They further claim that it is the schools that have been left with the aftermath, and that must clean up.

According to the WSJ, 200 school districts in the United States have also joined lawsuits against social media companies.