I was a late Snapchat bloomer. At 26-years-old and a third-year PhD student, I downloaded the app. I still rely on either Cazey or my 16-year-old brother to help me navigate the features.

Now that I have Snapchat, it’s my favorite app. One of my favorite pastimes is observing and discussing the appearance and actions of strangers. Before you label me a judgmental, pretentious snot, please understand: I’m a compassionate, understanding human. I just enjoy people watching and using my imagination to deduce things about their lives. Snapchat allows me to capture some of my more interesting subjects and share them with friends. I hope you can see how harmless this is…harmless, assuming you’re decently skilled in subtle picture-taking. As it turns out, I’m not.