Nikita’s Story: SnapMaps
Nikita talks about changing her Snapchat settings to feel happy about using SnapMaps.
Support if you are feeling hurt by posts, comments, photos, tags or other forms of ongoing harassment and you are not sure how to stop it.
What are my options?
Groups
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat give you the chance to set up and join groups or have group chats.
You might join groups on social media for lots of reasons like: sports teams, buy and sell pages, interests or hobbies, causes, study groups, workplaces, setting up activities or events and a thousand more reasons.
Being in a group
You choose to be part of a group but sometimes you might need to be approved by a group admin.
Some groups may need an invitation from a current member or the group administrator
Groups also have different visibility online. Some are public, others are closed and some are private (or secret) and only visible to members.
If a group is closed or private, it can provide an environment where members feel more comfortable sharing and being themselves.
The Admin
The group administrator, or “admin,” is basically the ‘leader’ of the group. A lot of the time there will be more than one admin.
This role can be time consuming because you will often manage who can be a member of the group and will also be responsible for monitoring group conversations and dealing with reports.
Notifications
The notifications in a group are automatically turned on.
If you want to turn them off, go to NOTIFICATIONS and then SETTINGS
Then you can decide if you do not want to have notifications sent and/or to decide who you want to get them from ( do you want to know when everyone posts or just when a friend posts, or would you rather get none and check for yourself manually?).
Deleting Messages
This is different depending on what platform you are using. Sometimes it will be deleted in full, but other times it will be deleted for you only.
Messenger
In Messenger, you can delete something that you have said, but this does not delete your comment from the threads of other people in the chat, only from yours.
If you have BLOCKED someone from contacting you in Messenger but they are part of a group chat, you’ll be notified before you enter the conversation.
If you choose to enter a group conversation with the person you blocked, you’ll able to see their messages and they’ll be able to see yours in that conversation.
Snapchat
In Snapchat, Chats sent in Group Chat are deleted by default after 24 hours.
If you do want to delete a group chat, follow the steps below:
- Tap in the top right hand corner of your Profile screen.
- Scroll down and tap ‘Clear Conversations’ under Account Actions.
- Tap the ‘X’ next to a name to clear a conversation, or ‘Clear All’ at the top right of the screen.
What’s App
In WhatsApp, you can delete messages up to seven minutes after you sent them, and they’ll disappear from conversations or group chats.
To delete messages you’ll get a new option after you select delete, allowing you to “delete for everyone” instead of just from your own device.
WhatsApp does warn that “recipients may see your message before it’s deleted or if deletion was not successful,” so it’s not a guarantee. It’s also possible that WhatsApp users will still see messages in notifications before they’re deleted.
Leaving a Group
If you are finding that a group is getting quite negative or toxic, you have the option to leave.
On Facebook, you do this by by going to the group, click Joined at the top and then select ‘Leave Group’.
When you leave a group, other members won’t be notified. You’re removed from the member list and the group will be removed from your list of groups.
Messenger
On Messenger, to leave a group conversation:
- Go to the conversation
- Click the Cog Options menu
- Select Leave Conversation
The other people in the conversation will be notified that you have left and you will no longer see messages from the conversation.
Snapchat
On Snapchat, to leave follow the steps below:
- Go to the Group Chat
- Tap the three horizontal lines button in the top left
- Tap ‘Leave Group’
Important If you leave a Group Chat, the Snaps and Chats you sent will be cleared from the Group Chat, even if someone saved them in the Chat.
