I don't know if you have noticed, but along with our face structures and voices, Snapchat has done lots to alter friendship patterns. Somewhere along choosing your bitmoji and sending that first selfie captioned "Streak?", the tags altered.

From "12 yrs 2geda" to a 203 days long streak - priorities shifted from being BFFs to reaching that pink heart milestone beside your Snapchat contact. And today, if you're not streaking, well, the world just doesn't need a terrible excuse of a friend like you.

For example last week, this new student joined my class and she made a really good first impression. At lunch time we even took her into our table. As I asked for her Snapchat ID to add her, she gave me her ID but not before adding, "But I'm not very good at streaks, I just keep breaking them". I picked up my tiffin box and slowly slid off the table. I don't need this kind of negativity in my life.

And later, as I was chilling with a classmate and I couldn't help but peak into his phone to see that he had a 32-day streak with his apparent best friend since childhood. Poor guy, he really thinks this friendship is going places with that level of commitment, or lack thereof.

Then there are toxic people who take streaks so lightly that they'd be willing to break a streak with the excuse, "Network issuez in dadubari".  Everybody knows you're supposed to give your username and password to your best friend in advance if you're going on an uncertain trip, so they can save your streaks if you're lost or dead or something. Duh.

While streaks are an essential aspect of any trendy teenager's social life, beware, if not utilised carefully, they may lead to severe casualties. Gone are the days when relationships wrecked due to sneaking around with other people. Today, the real deal breaker is, if God forbid, you're caught streaking with that girl from chemistry lab your girlfriend is jealous of. And if you want to break your significant other's heart these days, all you have to do is break a 98-day long streak.

Like the other day my friend was enraged as she entered class so I asked her what had happened. She said that her boyfriend of a year had just broken their 189-day streak because apparently the idiot lost his phone. As I watched the angry tears roll off her cheeks, I couldn't help but look at her like she's some sort of a lunatic. This is absurd. Relationships these days just lack real commitment, man. I couldn't believe he was still calling him her "boyfriend". How could she have not dumped him at the spot?

My point is, streaks are essential. I really can go on about the cultural and psychological significance of streaks in our modern and progressive society.

However, please excuse me as I now must go and save my streaks with my two best friends and a bunch of people I barely talk to in real life, and save myself from becoming a social outcast. Save your streaks, peeps!

Samin Sabah Islam believes, there are very few problems in life, if any, that a good nap can't fix.  If she isn't asleep, your queries may be answered at [email protected]