In the world today, people are surrounded by the wonders of social media and the power of the internet. Anyone can instantly connect with people, whether in the same room as them or across the country. Snapchat is among the most popular social media applications used today.

“I love Snapchat,” senior Jessica Liu said. “It’s one of the apps that I use the most on my phone and it’s how I communicate with friends.”

Snapchat offers free, instant messaging between people, and now with an updated feature, allows people to snap more than two parties.

“I use Snapchat daily,” Liu said. “Every few days the app comes out with new features, like the updated filters that are so fun to use.”

Features like filters, Buzzfeed videos and streaks appeal to users to continue the trend of instant photo messaging.

While Snapchat offers many positive benefits, there is, however, a number of negative factors.

At what cost do users suffer just to snap a photo to another? Some believe their battery is exhausted, data is drained and screenshots are always a risk.

“The app uses so much of my data,” senior Alex Armintrout said. “It takes up so much data just to watch a story or send a photo.”

Some say snapping a photo back and forth is tedious and unnecessary.

“The concept of Snapchat is cool, but the majority of the people I used to snap just sent me  pictures of a black screen, nothing interesting or worth the waste of battery,” Armintrout said.

While you can place text on photos, send a snap for only a second or share your stories with your friends, some feel the that Snapchat creates more problems than benefits.

“The whole notion of keeping streaks is weird and I don’t really understand the concept,” Armintrout said. “People get mad over a silly reason like if I broke my snap streak with them.”

Some enjoy using Snapchat, while some absolutely hate it. Varying opinions continue the debate on the effect of Snapchat.

“It’s very time-consuming and I don’t like that,” senior Komal Desai said. “It’s easy to become addicted.”

Even despite all these negative factors, Snapchat is still a popular application used today.

“It’s extremely fun,” Liu said. “It’s a great way to stay connected with friends and family.”