Snapchat or Instagram? The two social media platforms have risen in popularity in the past decade and have shaped the way people everywhere share their lives. Scroll through Instagram and you will see mainly photos of people and their friends, gathering at some sort of social event, occasionally you will get to catch a glimpse of some crazy food, or a tropical beach. No matter the case, the photos are usually highly edited, with filters covering the truth with a mask.

Snapchat, although still shares the mostly the perfections of a moment, can capture moments in a more casual, real time manner.

Snapchat’s more direct features gives users a greater chance to interact with each other. With little editing available with just a couple basic color filters, Snapchat is automatically giving viewers a more “natural” picture. Snapchats allows users to converse more freely with each other by sending photos one-on-one, posting it on your story for all of your friends to see, or even creating a private story which allows you to pick the friends who can see it.

Private stories have risen in popularity due to it allowing users to post freely, not afraid of judgment from those “friends” that are not always necessarily friends. A person who may have as many as 1,000 followers on Instagram will most likely have much less friends on Snapchat, making a more intimate platform.

Both platforms have their differences, every post on Instagram, might last forever, until deleted, where Snapchat automatically deletes a direct snapchat, seconds after it being sent, or at most 24 hours after. The threat of a person screenshotting a post, Snapchat will alert the poster whereas Instagram will not bother telling you. The love of Snapchat stories have landed their way into Instagram as well. In the past years Instagram’s platform have introduced their own stories, though it seems very similar to Snapchat.

Of course not every Instagram user is using the platform to set off this perfect lifestyle, there are some casual users. However, often those users are not the ones with all the followers and the most likes. It is all purely based on personal preference however, the more casual use of Snapchat seems much more appealing.

Overall, social media portrays life in an unrealistic form, yet our society can not seem to detach from it. Snapchat is more preferable over Instagram due to its easier way of communication, and casual tones.

More times than not, people get others’ Snapchat usernames from Instagram as they can be found in their bio, along with a link to their VSCO, if they have one. Instagram is purely a foundation, while Snapchat is where the more realistic communicating happens.