One of the most entertaining parts of my day is seeing all of the people making odd faces in public. Are they making really odd faces for the purpose of Snapchatting or sending cash? Perhaps they are doing both, now that the multimillion-dollar company released the application’s newest feature: the ability to send money through the chat aspect of the app, called Snapcash.
Of course, I think this is a brilliant idea. It’s not like Snapchat has ever been hacked twice in this past year alone. I have never had more confidence in an application to store my bank and credit card information.
If you’re buying what I’m selling, then you might be a perfect candidate for Snapcash. Nothing says best friends like sending a picture of yourself with six chins, along with that $10 you owe. Snapcash is now giving people the ability to personalize payback. Trust me, your friend will appreciate a picture of you making a rude gesture with an attached $15 and a message that says “I love you,” much more than a check with a cute Disney picture.
Snapcash’s bank information is managed through Square a banking application that allows people to send money electronically. Like Snapchat, it has had problems with hackers in the past. A simple Google search can link you with steps on how to hack into their system; I know this amazing security makes me feel safe as to where I input my bank information.
To sound even more cynical, I see this feature spiraling downward quickly. As I’m sure you’re aware, Snapchat is not solely used to send your roommate Snapchats of your face in class, or anything else of a similarly innocent nature. Not everyone is going to use this feature to send their friend lunch money. With an app that is infamously used to send nudes, the option of paying for suggestive pictures is at the fingertips of everyone using this app.
People send naked pictures of themselves, whether it be to significant others or someone else. For an application that only lets someone see a picture for a few seconds, now with the added feature that allows one to pay a Snapchat friend, I foresee this app being misused to imitate pornography, in which users send money in exchange for indecent pictures.
I’m sure many of you think I’m making a huge leap to that conclusion, or maybe that I have a pessimistic outlook on life. You may be right, but take a look at the facts: Pornography involves paying to view pictures of naked men/women. The chat feature allows one to send money and recieve pictures simultaneously. The ease at which one can fall into pornographic behavior is simply a chat away.
While this is not the intended result of this new feature, there is a likely chance of this occurring. People have been given access to a legal and easy way to send pictures and receive money in return.
Perhaps there are no better options to repay the money a friend loaned you; maybe you neither have trusted banking applications nor the cash on hand. Either way, if this was Snapchat’s way of breaking into a new market, it was a pretty dumb idea.
Money and pictures should be kept separate, minimizing the potential for this supposed innovation to turn into a legal form of pornography. Snapchat is not a trusted way to send money; rather, it’s an application to amuse oneself when one is bored.
Snapcash is a balloon ready to pop, as there will be problems, and I doubt Snapchat will be prepared to deal with them properly. If you choose to use Snapcash, don’t complain when your nudes and bank account information are released accidentally for everyone to see.
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