Isn’t it crazy how private conversations aren’t that private anymore? You know those people you see on TV sat in the corner of a courtroom typing every word being said. That is essentially your phone; you have your own personal stenographer.

By Imogen Davenport

Now let’s be honest, you would notice a real-life human being (let’s call her Sandra) sat in your room, and you would mostly likely feel uncomfortable having her following you around every day. But it is fine when we hide Sandra away in deep depths of our phone, we carry the damn thing around with us wherever we go without a second thought.  We actively choose to sign up to apps and sites who use our information but in a less obvious way. Sure, they tell you they are going to use all your data, but they make sure it is written in fine print on the last page of the T&C’s. I guess it’s their sneaky ways that make us feel better, we can pretend we didn’t see it and once we click that sign up button it’s never spoken about again.

Meta and Instagram are prime examples of this. It may look like you are signing up for free but in reality, you are paying in the form of your mental health. The exchange doesn’t seem like much of a good deal anymore. Every link you click on, every photo you like and every item you purchase these sites are storing the information so they can use it to best suit them. It appears like they are showing you ads for your benefit, but these multimillion-dollar companies didn’t get to where they are today by being nice. No, instead they set us up for failure on the daily basis. They use the algorithms to show beautiful people/lifestyles so we can compare ourselves. They promote clothes and items which are way out of our budgets to sway us into buying them. They create an ideal, a dream, an aspiration, so when we login to our phones we always feel like what we already have isn’t enough anymore. The more we see, the more we want. This downward spiral leads us only into judgement and self-deprecation.  The impact that this has on what we see and how we perceive our world is huge. It wraps up the impossible standards, and makes it look so achievable. And when we fall short of the perfect outer packaging, it’s not the platforms that suffer, it’s us.

If you are left feeling pretty miserable after scrolling on your phone for an hour, imagine how miserable you are going to feel in the next ten years if we keep feeding into sites like Meta. Telling them all our likes and dislikes, showing them our personality through the touch of a button so it can be exploited.

However, there is a flicker of light in this dim, social media run world – ClickASnap is the one of the first photo sharing sites trying to stand up against this and change the way we interact online. It proudly shouts to the roof tops that there are no algorithms to control what you see or when you see it. ClickASnap sets no unrealistic expectations for engagement in order for people to see your photos; everyone has a fair chance of their posts being seen. It does not store our data trying to calculate the best way to make money off of us. It does not push their own agenda onto unsuspecting participants. It wants everyone to be themselves, in a safe environment online and simply enjoy stunning images that are uploaded to the site daily. You can either sign up to a free account where you will see Ads, however, these are not tailored to your specific wants (remember ClickASnap isn’t farming your data like you are cattle) or you can opt to pay for one of the chargeable memberships whereby all ads are removed. Now you may be wondering why you would want to pay for a site when you can use Instagram and Meta for free right? But if you’re honest with yourself there is a price, a much higher price in the long run. You spend more money monthly through their use of advertisements and maybe even that therapy session you attend weekly due to the damage social media has caused. So, ditch the soul sucking, money grabbing, confidence destroying sites you are on now and join a healthy, positive community who has a user first mentality.

ClickASnap has even more benefits that sites like Meta and Instagram don’t, such as their Paid Per View policy. This benefit simply pays you when other people view your images. I know, seems unbelievable but it is in fact 100% true. Furthermore, unlike other sites where you upload your content and they take rights to your images, ClickASnap is the complete opposite. You keep all rights to your photos; they would never be used without your express permission.  They also offer WIPT (watermark-less image protection technology) so for those professional photographers out there, you can worry less about your images being stolen. The way it works is that it blocks someone from being able to take a screenshot or a print screen of your photo. The website simply won’t allow for it. Alongside this, you are unable to save or download images from the site onto your computer, it simply will not let you. As someone who uses social media themselves and has had images taken from Instagram and made into a brand-new catfish account, this is essential. We all know what damage someone can do to your online reputation in a few days by simply pretending to be you.

I could sit and list hundreds of reasons why you should give ClickASnap a try, but the site speaks for itself. Go take a look, scroll through the pages, see what takes your interest because in the long run this will be the best decision you’ve ever made in this technology fuelled generation.