Photo messaging is a new addition to the ever-growing list of the ways people communicate despite controversy from critics who say it detracts from living in the moment. Apps such as Snapchat, combined with an increasing number of smartphone users, allow photo messages to be sent at rates that compete with those of regular text messages.
Time magazine published an article in its Dec 30, 2013 issue saying how influential picture messaging has been. “As a whole, people are texting less than they used to: the average U.S. cellphone user now sends 628 text messages per quarter, down 8% from a year ago, according to Charma Consulting, a telecommunications research firm,” says Victor Luckerso’s article in Time. Instead of texting, smartphone users are sending photo messages.
Dannia Tan, a freshman in biochemistry from Utah, stated, “One of my friends just got Snapchat a few days ago and she’s been using it like crazy.” Critics say using Snapchat is taking away from living in the moment and that constant documentation takes away from life experiences, according to Luckerso. In defense of picture testing, on blog.snapchat.com,
Snapchat states, “This sentiment wrongly assumes that documentation and experience are essentially at odds, a conceptual remnant of how we used to think of photography, as an art object, as content, rather than what it is often today, less an object and more a sharing experience.”
Rebecca Vigoren, a sophomore in political science from Washington, agreed and said “sharing experience” is useful. Photo messaging “does more than just texting, and it gives more visual cues. It enhances the story of the conversation,” she said. On a virtual tour of her own Snapchat, she revealed drawing and special text capabilities, as well as a list of contacts.