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How many "Snapstreaks" does your teen have going?

Delaney Ruston, MD
October 4, 2016

TECH TALK TUESDAY #35
DOES YOUR TEEN HAVE ANY "SNAPSTREAKS" CURRENTLY?

A girl taking a picture of her face

Do you know what Streaks are?  Snapchat has something they call Snapstreaks that count the consecutive days you send a Snap to the same person. My daughter has some Snapstreaks that are more than 200 days long. To keep a "streak" going both people must send a Snap back-and-forth within 24 hours.

I've learned from the teens I've talked to that Snapstreaks don't necessarily signify a deep or special relationship. The number of "streaks" your kids have going at any one time may surprise you. This happened to me. Tessa (my daughter) and I were headed out on a week-long trip together and I asked that she leave her cellphone at home so as to mitigate some of the tension that sometimes arises between us around the phone. Tessa's first response was to be concerned about her "streaks" — it turns out she had 40 Snapstreaks going.  I was shocked. I wondered how she had the time to communicate individually with 40 different people every day. So we discussed it and in fact, she informed me that she sends a Snap to all 40 people at once, sort of like a cc. My co-producer's 17-year-old has 5 Snapstreaks going and when she asked him if he just sends them all the same one, he said no, that he likes to send a personal Snap to each of his 5 friends. What some kids do when they are forced to part with their phones is they give a friend their Snapchat password to have them keep their "streaks" going. Tessa and I had a nice, calm discussion about all this and in the end, she easily agreed to leave her phone at home.

This week we are talking about "streaks' for Tech Talk Tuesday. Here are some questions to get the conversation started:

  • Do you have any Snapstreaks going? If so, how many?
  • Do you send each person an individual Snap? Can you estimate how much time you spend maintaining your Snapstreaks in a day?
  • How do you decide who to have a "streak' with? Does it signify anything?
  • How would you handle it if suddenly you couldn't have access to Snapchat? Would you ask a friend to keep your "streaks" going? Would it bother you to let them go and start over?
a snap picture from co-producer Lisa Tabb's teen daughter

As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel

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Social Media

How many "Snapstreaks" does your teen have going?

Delaney Ruston, MD
October 4, 2016

TECH TALK TUESDAY #35
DOES YOUR TEEN HAVE ANY "SNAPSTREAKS" CURRENTLY?

A girl taking a picture of her face

Do you know what Streaks are?  Snapchat has something they call Snapstreaks that count the consecutive days you send a Snap to the same person. My daughter has some Snapstreaks that are more than 200 days long. To keep a "streak" going both people must send a Snap back-and-forth within 24 hours.

I've learned from the teens I've talked to that Snapstreaks don't necessarily signify a deep or special relationship. The number of "streaks" your kids have going at any one time may surprise you. This happened to me. Tessa (my daughter) and I were headed out on a week-long trip together and I asked that she leave her cellphone at home so as to mitigate some of the tension that sometimes arises between us around the phone. Tessa's first response was to be concerned about her "streaks" — it turns out she had 40 Snapstreaks going.  I was shocked. I wondered how she had the time to communicate individually with 40 different people every day. So we discussed it and in fact, she informed me that she sends a Snap to all 40 people at once, sort of like a cc. My co-producer's 17-year-old has 5 Snapstreaks going and when she asked him if he just sends them all the same one, he said no, that he likes to send a personal Snap to each of his 5 friends. What some kids do when they are forced to part with their phones is they give a friend their Snapchat password to have them keep their "streaks" going. Tessa and I had a nice, calm discussion about all this and in the end, she easily agreed to leave her phone at home.

This week we are talking about "streaks' for Tech Talk Tuesday. Here are some questions to get the conversation started:

  • Do you have any Snapstreaks going? If so, how many?
  • Do you send each person an individual Snap? Can you estimate how much time you spend maintaining your Snapstreaks in a day?
  • How do you decide who to have a "streak' with? Does it signify anything?
  • How would you handle it if suddenly you couldn't have access to Snapchat? Would you ask a friend to keep your "streaks" going? Would it bother you to let them go and start over?
a snap picture from co-producer Lisa Tabb's teen daughter

As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel

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