Snapchat Streaks:How Adolescents Metagame Gamification in Social Media

This paper presents strategies that Viennese adolescents use to uphold snap streaks - a gamified challenge on Snapchat inviting users to exchange at least one snap each 24 hours to keep the score. This gamification feature strongly impacts the communication practice of adolescents, both with regard to its temporality and its content. In order to secure the timed reciprocal exchange with their streak partner, adolescents would resort to so called streak snaps - impersonal pictures with reduced content that are sent solely for the purpose of upholding the streak. Three partially overlapping subcategories of streak snaps are outlined: mass snaps, “good morning” or “good night” snaps, and black pictures. Their main characteristics and role in perpetuating the gamified challenge on Snapchat are discussed with regard to reciprocity and metagaming. More specifically, the impact of these metagaming strategies on adolescents' communication, as well as their relevance for social media design, is discussed in detail.