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Snapchat recently introduced a new feature – the Snap Map. As the name suggests, Snap Map is the lovechild of maps and snaps. What does it do, you wonder?
It tells you where your friends are, when they last opened Snapchat, whether driving or travelling. It even tells you when someone is listening to music! All this in a totally non-creepy way, of course. (LOL)
For first timers on Snap Map, the app takes into consideration your willingness to share your location with others. There are two ways to be on Snap Map, you can either opt to share your location on the map or be on ‘ghost mode’. The latter allows a user to be invisible on the map, but they can see other users that are on normal mode.
Obviously, I opted for ‘ghost mode’ and then looked up my friends who were on the map.
The #FOMO is Real
Multiple studies have ascertained that the increasing use of social media has resulted in a lot of teens suffering from social anxiety. The pressure to look ‘perfect’ and always be ‘lit’ is immense.
If someone is a stay-at-home person, let them be. An app update should not make them feel insecure of what their preferred mode of socialising is. Yes, while there is the option of being on ‘ghost mode’, peer pressure may dictate otherwise.
We have a tendency to compare and the rise of social media has created two accomplices for our phone addiction – comparison and judgement.
Plenty memes have been doing the rounds on social media, where users have expressed their ‘concerns’, things like, “what if your boyfriend/girlfriend tells you they’re going to sleep and you catch them on snapmap going elsewhere?” Or, “when your friends make a plan and do not call you?”
Talk & Stalk
The fact that you can see where someone is – at all times – is just plain creepy. In fact, Snap Map allows you to zoom into a person’s location, almost to precision. Almost like it's design intends to tap into our basic insecurities.
It could instill in one the need to see where a friend is. It could be harmless stalking (or at least what starts out as harmless), a just-for-fun hobby, or it could be obsessively looking at what somebody is doing.
And then there are other kind of apprehensions:
How much of your life do you want people to know about? Where do we draw the line between ‘sharing’ and ‘intrusion’? How do we control thoughts like ‘I’m being ignored’? Haven’t WhatsApp’s last seen and Facebook’s last active already made it hard enough?
To Ghost or Not To Ghost
The real question now is – how to use Snap Map?
Snapchat allows plenty of control over privacy settings, but that doesn’t make the whole idea of the map any better.
I’m not much of a Snapchatter (anymore), and so I’ve only used Snap Map sparingly. I’ve been mostly on ‘ghost mode’, but I feel it is unfair for me to see where my friends are, and not return the favour.
The ‘ghost mode’ may seem to be the go-to solution to protect your privacy, but it also gives you a curtain to lurk behind.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)