Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW

Snapchat Affects Young Adults

Sonia Cortez
University of Texas at El Paso

LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract
Social media such as Snapchat can have an intense and negative impact on young adult's lives
when they spend an irrational amount of time. Young teens are the most likely to use Snapchat
which causes levels of stress with popularity, people attacking the users, as well many more
factors. A literary review was conducted in which social media such as Snapchat should be
monitored with a software called SnapTrends, which will give people the information of how
they need to proactively guide the conversation and quickly respond to the crisis. Thus with the
monitoring, it will reduce the amount of attacks and suicide due to Snapchat. The following
questions will give more information about the topic: "How often do young adults use
Snapchat?", "What are the flaws of using Snapchat?", Should there be limits on when to use
Snapchat?, and How can we monitor Snapchat?.

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Snapchat is an application for IPhones and Android devices that allows subscribers to
send photos to other subscribers. Users can send time limited photos that might be embarrassing
or just silly without a significant fear that it will find its way to other social media sites where it
might live forever. Snapchat can be a fun and engaging app when used appropriately, but it
should be used carefully and with very specific ground rules or not used at all. Snapchat reminds
parents that they need to be vigilant about their children's smartphone use and to monitor their
activity to prevent problems like sexting, cyberstalking, cyberbullying or other elements of the
dark side of smartphone use by their children (Parker, 2016). Snapchat is a worldwide
application that is affecting a variety of teens, and they should be aware that apps like those are
fun but at the same time they can harm them. Some major questions that will give more
information about this topic are:

"How often do young adults use Snapchat"?

"What are the flaws of using Snapchat"?
Should there be limits on when to use Snapchat?
How can we monitor Snapchat?
How often do young adults use Snapchat?
Snapchat is a prominent form of communication, and entertainment among young adults

age 18 to 29 (Perrin, 2015). When these young adults spend an inordinate amount of time
managing their virtual identities, it can have a profound and negative impact on their authentic
lives. Discretion should be used by young teens and their guardians, weighing the benefits and
the perils of exposure to such material.
The Pew Research says that Snapchat has affected people in their teenage life through
their levels of stress and in many more factors. According to the article Social Media Usage:

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2005-2015, by Andrew Perrin (2015), nearly two-thirds of American adults use social media;
which it includes Snapchat. Age is vigorously correlated with social media usage.

Young teens ages 18 to 29 are the most likely to use social media such as Snapchat.
Snapchat is mostly a hit among teenagers, they primarily use Snapchat to send funny content,
and details of their everyday life. Apparently, most of the people that use social media such as
Snapchat is to stay in touch with others, but also to stay updated on what is going on in the world
around us. On a regular basis, users may pull up the app just to pass time, but what they may not
know is that they may be on the verge of social media taking over their life. By the use of
smartphones, Snapchat has affected young teens because they go online almost every day.
Snapchat and Internet use, which can take over peoples lives are related to higher levels of
stress. The social uses of digital technologies and the awareness of agonizing events in others

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lives makes the use of social media feel more stressing. Another reason social media such as
Snapchat affects teens is because of cyberbullying. The devastation of these attacks can leave
deep mental scars, and in several cases, victims have even been driven to suicide (Parker, 2016).
Although social media can have a positive impact on the health and salubrity of children and
adolescent people, it can additionally pose risks for these vulnerable susceptible populations.
Peoples lives matter and with social media at the reach of children and young adults, it will keep
affecting peoples health, and it will manage to change who they are.
"What are the flaws of using Snapchat?"
A main problem of using Snapchat are security flaws. According to the article Crash and
Burn: Snapchat Security Flaws Strike again, by Davis (2014), a recent flaw is that it allowed for
a hacker to flood a single Snapchat account with thousands of messages to a userfreezing the
device and forcing a reboot. The type of attack described above is referred to as a denial-ofservice attack. These types of attacks consist of efforts by cybercriminals to temporarily or
indefinitely interrupt a servicein this case, that service is Snapchat. When a user sends a
message through Snapchat, a unique code made up of letters and numbers (called a token) is
generated to verify their identity. These tokens are supposed to change for each sent message,
however, researchers have discovered that hackers may be able to reuse old tokens to send
massive amounts of new messages in a very short period of time. This flaw in the Snapchat
security architecture could be exploited by hackers looking to send mass quantities of messages
to numerous users or to launch an attack on a specific individual. It should be noted here that this
attack can only be executed on users who have chosen to add the attacker to their Snapchat list of
friends.

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Another similar security flaw was when Snapchat reported some 13GB of images sent
through the app from at least 10,000 accounts have been leaked. According to the article
Snapchat leak affects tens of thousands of people, including minors by Bailey & Thomas
(2014), a report in Business Insider pinned the leak on a third-party app thats supposedly been
collecting snaps for years. There are also reports claiming files on that third-party app are
actually saved by Snapchat users without the sender's knowledge. Although there are rumors the
leak could be fake, through a series of tweets Snapchat confirmed there was a leak but not
through any fault of its own. The company said the leak wasnt a fault with its own servers, but
due to lack of security in that third-party app the use of which is prohibited by Snapchats
terms of use. Snapchat settled in May and from then on was prohibited from misrepresenting
the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of user's information
(Bailey & Thomas, 2014). In addition, the FTC required Snapchat to implement a new,
comprehensive privacy program that would be independently monitored for the next 20 years.
It's not yet clear how this recent leak will be handled by Snapchat or the FTC.
Should there be limits on when to use Snapchat?
Snapchat, which simply means to chat by way of snaps, has become addictive amongst
young adults and teens, so much that there is no limit to what people snapchat to each other.
From selfies to food to the locations to work and literally everything is being snapped and sent to
friends all over the world. Snapchat can be used through different time periods, but people
should take into consideration of what can be the consequences when they don't use it with
ground rules, this might include: at what time they use Snapchat, what location do people use
Snapchat or even why do they even use it at time period. There are some things that people
should not do when the time is wrong. For example, according to the website Snapchat speed

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filter motivated car crash that left Georgia man with brain damage by Silverstein (2016), he
talks about how an 18-year old, Christal McGee was in the car with two of her other friends
when she slammed into another car in front of her. The lawsuit from the other car driver isn't just
against her but is also against Snapchat. The reason for that, Snapchat has a filter that shows you
how fast a person is going (mph, kph) and people use it for a variety of things (walking, running,
on a bicycle). In this case, while Christal was driving the car, she wanted to take a picture of
herself going super fast with that filter saying that she just wanted to get to 100 mph so she could
post that picture on Snapchat. Her passenger says that she sees the filter go to 113 mph, and
Christal says I'm about to post it and at that moment she slammed into a car in front of her at
107 mph. Christal and her friends were treated for minor injuries and the uber driver she
slammed into suffered permanent brain damage, and can no longer take care of himself.
The question becomes Is it her fault and Snapchat fault or just her fault? The argument
from the victims lawyer says that Snapchat has an obligation under the law not to place
dangerous items into the stream of commerce, and they have a responsibility to act reasonably to
take steps to eliminate risks associated with their products. Arguing that by having this filter they
are promoting dangerous behavior. Snapchat's argument is that even in the app made discourage
from the people using the filter while they are driving, the spokesperson for Snapchat is saying
No Snap is more important that someone's safety. We actively discourage the community from
using the speed filter while driving, including by displaying a Do NOT Snap and Drive
warning message in the app itself. It might seem that Christal had the most fault in this but also
Snapchat because it added something very dangerous in the marketplace where she had the focus
on. Things like this make people realize that Snapchat or other social medias do bring
consequences and that they should use it with ground rules, with caution and specific amount of

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times. So, yes there should be limits on when to use Snapchat, because it could distract you from
the moment you are in and cause serious problems.
How can we Monitor Snapchat?
Watching young adults suffer from depression or having low self-esteem because of
social media prompts strong emotions, and creates a desire to strive to establish more awareness
and change these issues. We should establish awareness to prevent from people to committing
suicide because of what they see in social media. Snapchat should be monitored for several
reasons. First of all if discretion is advised we would have the opportunity to respond to
complaints. People should work to develop a culture where everyone looks out for everyone else
and if something of concern arises, someone will step up and take appropriate action. Most of the
time, when there is a threat to cause harm either to ones self or others, someone sees or hears
about it. Another reason Snapchat should be advised is to manage any crisis, long before
negative news reaches traditional outlets, it will be making its way through the social network.
The bottom line is that social media is the way hundreds of millions of people
communicate today and monitoring it gives people the information they need to proactively
guide the conversation and quickly respond to crisis. Snapchat can be monitored with a
monitoring software called SnapTrends. According to the article SnapTrends, by Ghazzawi
(2013), SnapTrends is a data gathering tool for social media collection, monitoring, and
analysis. SnapTrends distinguishes itself because it provides precise geospatial social media
accumulation through its innovative, unique Listening Lens technology. With this software,
parents will not only be aware of what they are doing and watching but they will take the
preventative measures of future things. Monitoring the social media activities means listening to
what people are saying to a person, about them, and in their area of interest. Measuring them

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means counting, calculating, and quantifying those activities into useful metrics that will inform
peoples actions. Monitoring Snapchat and other medias will help people seek out chatter about
whatever they want to post (positive or negative) and while people cant change whats been
posted, they can change the direction that the conversation is headed.
To conclude, Snapchat affects young adults because their minds are being molded by
everything they visually perceive and hear. Discretion should be used by guardians and young
teens, considering the benefits and the hazard of exposure to such material. If people keep using
Snapchat without ground rules and without appropriate time periods, there would be an increase
of community problems like the car crash and issues such as cyber bullying, cyber stalking,
sexting and other elements of the dark side. Therefore, people should take preventive measures
of what they do with the use of Snapchat and other uses of social media.

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References
Bailey, J., & Thomas, E. (2004, October 11). Snapchat leak affects tens of thousands of people,
including minors. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/snapchat-leak-affects-tens-thousands-peopleinclud/nhgz4/
Davis, G. (2014, February 12). Snapchat security flaw freezes IPhones. Retrieved June 28, 2016,
from https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/snapchat-security-flaw/
Parker, W. (2016, February 03). Snapchat- A popular app for teens but with a dark side.
Retrieved June 28, 2016, from http://fatherhood.about.com/od/fathers-socialmedia/p/Snapchat.htm
Perrin, A. (2015). Social media usage: 2005-2015. The Pew Research Center,
Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/socialnetworking-usage-2005-2015/
Silverstein, J. (2016, April 26). Snapchat speed filter 'motivated' car crash, suit says.
Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/snapchatspeed-filter-motivated-car-crash-suit-article-1.2615208
Social Media 2005-2015. (2015). [Graph illustrates the percentage of adults who use
networking sites, by age October 8, 2015]. Young Adults still are the Most Likely to Use
Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networkingusage2005-2015/