By Kayla DeKraker
Is Snapchat keeping your kid glued to their phone? While most users are familiar “Snapchat Streaks,” parents need to know about this addictive feature.
“If your kid is on Snapchat, there’s a good chance they’re chasing streaks,” Officer Gomez, a school resource officer who warns parents about their kids’ social media use, said on Facebook. “But what are they, and why do they matter so much to teens?”
He explained, “A ‘streak’ is the number of days in a row two people have sent at least one Snap (a photo or video, not a chat) to each other. If they’ve done it for 467 days straight, that streak number will say ‘467’ — and to them, that’s a badge of honor.”
Just like other false reward systems, Streaks can be addictive.
“Streaks trigger the same reward-and-achievement loop as video games,” Gomez explained. “Teens feel pressure to never break a streak — even asking friends to ‘keep my streaks’ if they’re busy. The higher the number, the more value they attach to it. Losing one feels like losing a friendship.”
Like any addictive platform, its goal is to keep users coming back.
He explained, “Many teens have dozens of streaks going at once — which means they’re logging in every single day, often multiple times, to keep them alive. That’s intentional — Snapchat designed streaks to keep users coming back.”
Related: Snapchat Adds New Features to Help Parents Keep Kids Safe
The feature is so addictive that Snapchat even has a help page so users can restore broken streaks.
“I lost my Streak. How do I restore it?” one user asked.
Snapchat answered, “First, check if your Streak is eligible to be restored. Look for a ‘Restore’ button next to the Chat that was on a Streak. If you see it, tap ‘Restore’ and follow the instructions in the app to get your Streak back.”
Officer Gomez continued, “Streaks can turn into a daily obligation instead of casual fun. They encourage constant use and can fuel anxiety about missing a day. Snapchat streaks may seem harmless, but they’re engineered to keep your kid hooked, one day at a time.”
But what exactly makes this reward system so addictive?
Penn LPS Online explained that when someone engages in a rewarding activity, the brain releases dopamine, “creating a sense of pleasure and reinforcing the behavior to encourage repetition.” Though the system was designed for survival (think food, social bonding or exercise, according to the outlet), artificial stimuli, like social media, drugs or alcohol, can hijack it, “leading to a cycle of overactivation and desensitization.”
This means a person no longer gets the same dopamine rush from natural rewards and instead has to keep going back to artificial stimuli to achieve similar highs.
Thus, features like Snapchat’s Streaks can result in internet addiction, which has devastating impacts.
A study from the Annals of the Academy of Medicine Singapore said, “internet addiction is frequently associated with mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).”
Although much of this information is not new, parents must be aware of specific apps their kids might be engaging with that feed their internet addiction.
So, what can you do?
The Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice suggests reviewing “games, apps, and social media sites before they are downloaded or used by children” and adjusting “privacy settings and us[ing] parental controls.”
Also, communicate with your child about addictive features online so they learn to recognize them for themselves. It’s up to parents to uphold boundaries for their kids’ time online.
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