Snapchat’s Snap Map feature makes surveilling friends, classmates and strangers accessible with the click of a button. In a world where widespread location sharing has become the norm — with 65% of Gen Z sharing their location, according to a 2025 survey conducted by CivicScience — students have adopted new social conventions to navigate online communication.
Snapchat is a social media platform where users send photos, videos and chats to each other that disappear once viewed. Snapchat includes features such as “Snapscores” which tally how many videos or photos a user has sent and received, and tracks daily streaks between two users.
The app also includes a digital map, called Snap Map, where users can see the locations of others whom they have added on the platform, and see when they are online. Users can choose who they have their location shared with, and can temporarily turn off location sharing with Snap Map’s “Ghost Mode” feature.
The Urban Legend conducted a survey of 72 students, in which 70% reported having Snapchat downloaded on their phones. According to the survey, 88% of the 51 Snapchat users enable location sharing on Snap Map. Twenty-four percent of these students share their location with everyone they have added, while the remaining 76% limit their location sharing to specific people.
Some students feel anxiety resulting from location sharing on Snap Map. “It’s nice to have my friends’ locations, but at the same time it definitely increases FOMO [fear of missing out],” Olivia Stanton ’27 said. “[FOMO is] more tangible if you can see that they’re together and you’re not there.”
Adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Cameron Caswell examined the impact of Snap Map on social dynamics among teenagers in an interview with Huffpost. “There’s comfort in knowing where your people are, especially in a world where teens constantly feel like they could get left out, replaced or excluded,” she said. “But that comfort is fragile — it relies on constant access (which leaves their nervous system hypervigilant to feeling ‘left out’).”
Snap Map can also impact social expectations. Paloma Seligman ’28 said, “If people see that I’m online [via Snap Map], they’ll text me ‘Why aren’t you snapping me back? Do you hate me?’”
Some students have concerns about privacy. “Seeing where people live can sometimes feel … invasive,” Amelie Rocca Holstein ’29 said. “Seeing where people spend a lot of their time … can be fun and innocent and all, until it’s not. … I think there are certain parts of my life — like what cafe I go to — [that] I don’t necessarily want everyone I know to see.”
This discomfort spans beyond students. In recent years, Snapchat has conducted surveys showing that parents have become increasingly concerned about their teens’ online activity. In a 2023 report based on the findings of these surveys, 43% of parents agreed with the statement ‘I trust my child to act responsibly online and don’t feel the need to actively monitor them’ — this is down from 49% in 2022.
Students noted how parental concern extends to Snap Map and location sharing. “My parents don’t allow me to [have Snap Map turned on] because they think it’s a serious safety concern,” Rocca Holstein said.
Seligman described how in some cases, parents are not familiar with how social media is used among teenagers. “[My parents] are not the most technologically aware, especially of apps like Snapchat. … They’re not on it, so they don’t know how [it works],” she said.
Whether by implementing parental limitations or allowing unrestricted use, parents have responded to Snapchat’s location sharing feature in different ways. In an interview with The Urban Legend, Sarah Barrows, local parent of a 15-year-old, said, “I would rather my child think things through and be able to make assessments about location sharing [on Snap Map], as opposed to just prohibiting online activity.”