Before, a picture could last a lifetime, but now it may only last three seconds.

The trending smartphone application SnapChat created by Evan Speigal and Bobby Murphy has become an outlet for creativity for students in and out of school. The app enables someone to send a picture to another user for a limited amount of time with drawing tools and messaging capabilities. Once the photo is opened, a timer counts down until the picture disappears forever.

SnapChat was created in 2011 and 1 billion ‘snaps’ were sent between its users this October.

Junior Kim North has been “SnapChatting” since July and said she uses the app because it is a new and different way of communicating.

“I love receiving my friends’ crazy pictures,” North said. “It’s also funny and awkward the way strangers look at you when you’re sending one in public.”

The app was recently opened to Android users and is now connected to Facebook and Twitter. Although the app is accessible to any student with a smartphone, many choose not to snap. Senior Charlie Romlin said he decided not to download the free app, but can see why his friends are using it.
“I don’t have one although I think it’s a cool new way for people to communicate,” Romlin said. “But I think it will be a fad.”

Although many students have embraced using the app, teens are getting more distracted from their work by multimedia such as SnapChat according to a study by the California State University. The university studied 263 teens and found that after only three to four minutes of studying students already start checking their various multimedia. The study also found students who checked Facebook just once while working had a lower grade point average than those who didn’t.

Although smartphone applications such as SnapChat are found distracting to teens, freshman Dorothy Slater said she has been sidetracked from completing her homework by SnapChat, but it can be avoided.

“(Snapchat is) distracting at times, but it’s easy enough to turn off and respond on your own time,” Slater said.

Despite the potential concerns of using the app, the popularity continues to increase.