Could it be possible that a simple app (that’s been given more criticism than it deserves) could actually be teaching us things? When you look at Snapchat you think of temporary picture sharing. What could that possibly teach us? Well, when we examine how and why Snapchat is used, we find it teaching us a lot about life, faith, forgiveness, and so much more.
Let’s take a moment to get a few negative misconceptions out of the way. No, Snapchat is not a sexting app. It is not meant to send dirty pictures to people so that they can’t save them. To the contrary, most of Snapchat’s users use it to send pictures of the things around them to their friends, or pictures of themselves. Also, no, Snapchat pictures aren’t completely private or temporary. They can be saved, but it requires more work than the average user is going to put in. And nothing on the internet is completely private or gone forever, expecting such is outlandish.
The most common use for Snapchat is to send pictures of yourself with no so flattering looks or facial expressions to your friend (with or without a caption). It’s even used for conversations in this way. Why do we flock to this so much? Because it reminds us that there’s a person on the other end. It’s no secret that face-to-face communication is preferred over electronic communication (except by a few people) but that can’t always happen. When it can’t, you’re left without the face of the person you’re talking to and they lose some of their humanity.
Short of video chatting with someone, before Snapchat, there was no resolution to this problem. Now that we have Snapchat, we can have conversations with people electronically and still, see their face. And it’s more convenient than video chatting because you can view it and respond when you have time (much like a text) and not have to both be free at the same exact time. So what can this teach us? Perhaps teach isn’t the right word. Maybe it more reminds us of things we already know and often forget. I’ll probably interchange “teach” and “remind” from here on out.
The first thing that Snapchat reminds us is that we’re human. Often when we sit behind a computer (or phone) and talk with people electronically we forget that they’re people. That’s part of why cyberbullying is such a big deal. It’s easy to be mean to a phantom, it’s a lot harder to be mean to a real person. But when you’re talking to a person, and are able to see their face, they become human again. They’re not just a phantom, an “other” that you’re talking to. They’re Joe again. In a world of technology, sex, and violence where people’s humanity is being stolen from them, an app that reminds us those who we are talking to are human like us can go a long way.
The best Snapchats are those where the person is at their worst. Nobody likes to post a bad picture on Facebook (or in a picture frame if you’re older than 12 and remember what those are). But people love to send embarrassing pictures over Snapchat. The worse you look in the Snap, the more proud you are of it. This concept does two things. First, it allows the other person a glimpse of a side of us they wouldn’t normally see. It opens us up to them, to be slightly vulnerable. More often than not we’re most concerned with our personal safety and security than anything else, and allowing ourselves to drop those walls (even for a few seconds to take a snap) is a tremendous start to being real and honest with people outside of said app.
It also reminds all of us that nobody is perfect, and that’s okay. This is especially true within the church community. Many people have talked about this before, but I don’t think it can ever be addressed too much. There’s a prevailing trend in Christian churches (especially in the US) for the members to be perfect. Or at least pretend to be. When someone acts in a less than perfect way they’re disciplined, scorned and judged. That’s not okay. That’s the exact reason people are afraid to be vulnerable with others. But terrible looking snaps remind us that all of us are imperfect, and it’s okay to show that. Like within Snapchat, it’s better that way. It’s better to be real and honest than to pretend like you’ve got it all together. It’s better to mess up than to pretend you never do anything wrong. Snapchat could teach the church a lot about letting people be themselves and not put on a show.
The last thing I want to talk about is what I like to call Snapchat Forgiveness. This one is more related to how it works than how it’s used. When you receive a snap, you view it for a pre-determined period of time (sent by the sender) and then it’s gone. You can’t (easily) view it again (except one once per day with the new replay, but let’s ignore that silly feature). The image is now gone from the phone, but you still remember it. You can’t save it, send it to anyone else, or anything like that. All you can do is remember it.
That’s how I believe we need to practice forgiveness. It’s essentially the old, “forgive but don’t forget” saying. I know that “forgive and forget” is more popular, but I don’t think that’s a healthy way to forgive. For instance, if you forget you’re more likely to let someone do the same thing to you again (whether it’s the same person or someone else) and that’s not ideal. Likewise, forgetting it causes it to lose its meaning and value in your life. Everything that happens (especially the things that hurt or harm us) are important and teach us things. Forgetting about them minimizes the experiences.
I know what you might be thinking. “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” And that’s true. But there’s a difference between keeping a record of wrongs (which would, presumably, be used against someone in the future) and remembering what happened. When you forgive them you say, “I’m not holding this against you.” But when you remember it you’re saying, “It did still happen and that’s still important.” It’s awkward, yes, and it’s difficult. There’s a fine like to walk between remembering and holding against, and we all struggle with it from time to time, but it’s the healthiest form of forgiveness we can practice, especially for ourselves.
You might also be saying that God forgets our mistakes, so why should we not do the same for others? First, that’s contradictory to another widely held view withing Christianity. The mainstream opinion is that when you die and stand before the Lord your life will play out. In this, you’ll see all the times you failed God. At the end, though, He’s forgiven you and welcome you into His kingdom (if chose to follow Him). How can we state that God forgets our wrongdoings and also state that our life will play before us, complete with those very things He supposedly forgot. It just doesn’t work. If God doesn’t forget, why should we?
Perhaps, though, that’s not the case. Maybe our lives won’t play out before us. Maybe God does really forget all the things we do wrong. Who are we to not then? We’re humans. Fallen being. Less than divine. We live in a world ravaged by sin and pain. Yes, we are part of His kingdom and need to live like we are there, but we’re still in this place where we aren’t there yet. We are, but we aren’t. We’re still in a world where people will hurt us and damage us. It’s important to not only forgive others but to protect ourselves. Sometimes in order to protect ourselves, we need to remember what others have done to us so we see the signs before they happen again. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s guarding our heart. Just like Snapchats are gone but remembered, things need to be forgiven but not forgotten.
