Ms. Davey’s announcement at a recent assembly that she deleted Snapchat and Instagram has students wondering whether the apps are unhealthy or even addictive.

Snapchat and Instagram are two of the most popular apps in today’s world; they’re immensely popular across all populations, from high school students to celebrities. These apps have changed social norms; people often spend exorbitant amounts of time on the apps in order to keep in touch with friends or for entertainment, and even for news.

Couper Gunn ’18 understood why Ms. Davey deleted her accounts.

“I thought Ms. Davey’s announcement was cool,” Couper said. “[Although] I thought it could’ve used more information about why she did it.”

” I use social media multiple times a day, either Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter,” Couper added. “I think it has been good and bad. Sometimes I see my friends doing something cool without me on Snap or Instagram and it doesn’t make me feel great, but on the flip side, both allow me to see others’ lives, which is something I like.”

Couper has  changed his daily activity on Snapchat since the announcement.

“The only thing I’ve changed is that I got rid of all the streaks I had with people whom I see on a daily basis,” he said. “I now only have streaks with my friend from New Hampshire or my club team that I don’t see every day.”

“I would also like to make Instagram go back into chronological order and not what they think from algorithms what you most want to see.”

Junya Ozaki ’18 had a similar experience.

“I really respect her decision to delete her Snapchat and Instagram because I tried to remove those apps during my junior year, but ended up installing them again since I was scared of not knowing what was going on around me,” Junya said.

Junya believes there is a positive aspect and negative aspect to using both the apps consistently.

“One of the positive things about using social media is that you can let other people know who you really are,” he explained. “The negative aspect of it is that you tend to care too much about what other people post and that you might post something that can harm others without thinking because of how easy it is to post on social media.”

One of the things Junya disagrees with is the fact that the apps now allow people to see when you are active online.

“Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat should not tell others when you are online because I really don’t think it is something they should know,” he said.

Cory Booth ’19 deleted all of his social media at the beginning of last year.

“I stopped using Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram in 2017,” Cory said. “I just had enough of it all and I didn’t like people having the opportunity to view everything about my life.”

“If a person truly wants to know who you are then social media doesn’t matter,” he added. “In places like small communities there’s less social media because everyone knows everybody. I survive just fine without it in Bermuda.”