February 14 is a day everyone dreads. Regardless of your relationship status, Valentine’s Day upholds high expectations that are often not met. Currently, generation Z is in a niche phase of their life. A staple that each member of the generation uses is Snapchat. As a member of the Gen Z community, I can not picture a Valentine’s Day without the presence of Snapchat. This generation hides behind the screens and asks people to date, hang out, and more. As this day approaches, I wonder what Valentine’s Day will look like in 20 years if Snapchat is still the primary form of communication.
At the ripe age of 37-8, one still may be looking for their perfect match. I have created scenarios on how the asking out, dating, and talking stages would play out. What filters will be relevant, and what other features Snapchat Plus has added.
The first step to finding your perfect match would be to scroll through your friends on Snapchat for at least a minimum of 5 minutes until you rediscover your friends from high school. Another alternative would be to revive old group chats from high school about when people’s parents were out of town and could invite only seven friends over. Lastly, you could scroll back into your memories and see your old high school and/or college friends. Depict which one would age the best and decide to chat with them.
The next step would be finding an appropriate approach to the first text you will send. During this age, it is hard to tell whether they are married or in a relationship. You need to create a friendly text saying hello and hinting for them to tell you about their relationship and current situations. You can not come off as creepy because that is just weird, but obviously, you are looking for more than a simple check-in text. An example of an acceptable text would be “Hey old friend! I loved it when you used to let me cut you in the cafe line and let me come to your open crib! I was wondering what and (who) you have been up to?” It is crazy how fast February 14th is coming up. I hope all is well! Please text me in a timely matter:” XOXO (your name here). Obviously, this could use some work, but it gets the point across without being super creepy.
Now, you must encounter the hard part: waiting for a response. I don’t know what advances Snapchat will have by this time, but I am optimistic that there will be a way for you to see when they view your message and if they look at it and choose not to respond. One could always check when their possible Valentine was last active, but who knows if their snap maps will be on… maybe on the maps, you can see how many people they are living with. I would not put it past Snapchat’s tracking abilities. As you bite your nails and anticipate a response, make sure to update your private story, try the new filters, and change your Bitmoji to look a little bit more like your current self.
“Blank is typing…” I hope this feeling is just as exciting. Depending on what the response is, there are two sources of action you make a start to begin. If your old friend is in the same boat as you, I hope you take the time and effort to go and see your high school valentine and reminisce on the days when Snapchat was expected, and so were you. If the chat never gets open and or you get left on read….. A classic move; you need to pretend like nothing happened. One way to play this off would be to post on your main story, “LOL, my kid just hacked my phone, sorry if you got anything weird.” Or, as you used to do in high school, unadd the person and attempt to go to your local dive bar on February 14th.
