Dope/Not Dope: Snapchat – The best app ever created.

Dope: The best app ever created, Snapchat. In case you aren’t familiar, it’s an app that allows you to take pictures and set a timer on them so that the person receiving them can view the picture from 1 to 10 seconds—your choice. You can also record videos for up to 10 seconds and add typed captions or draw on your snaps with a solid spectrum of colors. The wizardly magic of snapping is that once you view the picture or video, it disappears so no one can ever see it again or save it.

The only way to capture a snap is to screen shot it. But you have to be swift I tell you, especially when you only have a couple seconds to view the picture. Being nimble enough to screen shot dope snaps is a skill we all strive to have.

Another great feature on Snapchat is the ability to mass-send, that is, to send the picture or video you took to as many people as you want. I am a huge offender of the mass-send. I often click on everyone’s name on my friend list without even looking at the names. This is not recommended for the snappers on noob-snap level.

The dopest snaps are the funny ones. Period. You are raised to the high ranking of snap-enthusiast if you snap hilarious videos, such as my friend and fellow snap-regular Jordan McGuire who snaps a video almost every day to all of his friends pinned “Word of the Day” in which he takes a selfie-vid, usually while driving—also not recommended. Most times, his snapchats show him with his sunglasses on, looking away from the camera, saying “Oh, the word of the day?” then ripping his wayfarers off and turning to the camera and saying a different word every day in a different voice each time.

Today it was “Kung-Fu! WAHHHHHHH!” with a righteous ninja chop gesture. I look forward to his word of the day each time I see I have a vid-snap from the ever so witty Mr. McGuire. Classic.

Another dope snap-skill is making your snap an elaborate work of art using the draw feature. “My main b,” as I call her, Emily Pontiff, is known for her detailed drawings that make each of her snaps nothing short of EPIC. Once she legit made herself look like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. Upon viewing entertaining snaps like these, all of our days just get that much more church.

Not Dope: Being a blasé snapper and sending stupid, boring snaps. Nothing makes steam rise from my ears more than a 10-second long snap of a computer, for instance, with the caption “work flow.” It’s like, ‘ARE YOU SEERI, BROTHER!? FOR THE FULL TIME!?’ And then you know that they mass-sent it and you just have to give an SMH and hope that their next one will offer an opportunity for snap-redemption.

Another not dope way to snap is to literally snap a pic or vid of your dog sleeping or, even more despick, a blurry pic of your dog with the caption “Mr. Fluffy loves his Scooby snacks” for the full 10 seconds. That chizz could not be more whack.

I’m not going to name drop, but there is a certain someone who mass-sends ONLY pics of their dog EVERY DAY, LIT, doing mundane things such as standing at the door waiting to be let in or sleeping on the freaking floor. You know who you are, and I tell you, everyone on your snap-list needs you to liven up your snaps or you are at serious risk of being the most boring 22-year-old in America, or even worse, a snap-disrupter. That is, one who disrupts the vibe of the snap-scroll (one’s list of unopened snaps).

The sole purpose of Snapchat is to get a reaction from your snap-friends. Nothing is more fulfilling than mass-sending a snap and getting numerous snap-responses that are just for your snap. I beg of you fellow snappers, before you send out a snap, think to yourself, “Is this worth 10 seconds of my snap-friend’s day? If you have to question whether to send out a snap or not, don’t send it. It’s most likely, in this case, not dope.

Disclaimer: 225 DOES NOT endorse getting hammered, however, inebriated snapping should be discussed and deserves its own category. There are several things dope and not seaux deauxpe about inebriated snapping. Dope fact: most humans are funnier after alcohol consumption.

Don’t we all love a good snap of our snap-friends’ alcohol induced shenanigans? I would rank my friends Trey “Trizz” Minchew and Alex “Cha Boi” Simm on the level of hammed-snappers. Snap vids of Trizz’s rowdy golf cart booze cruises and Cha Boi’s ridiculously turnt captures ending in his notorious cackle are always applauded. Not seaux deauxpe: Looking at your snap-scroll the next morning and realizing you mass-sent several snap-vids, having no recollection whatsoever of the subject matter, praying it was entertaining, and not at your own expense.

Nevertheless, inebriated snapping is 100% socially acceptable as long as it’s entertaining. It’s totes not dope to send a blurry snap of a sea of people in a bar with the caption “I’m drunk.” I think we all remember our first beers. Bar snaps are for sure dope if it’s a vid of trashy people grinding then a selfie pan-in on your reaction with a caption that makes a reference to 2 Chainz.

I reckon the judgment struggle with drunk snapping, however, and must add that lame drunk snaps are much more forgivable than sober ones.

Pictured above: My Grandpa Bob, King of the Selfie