'The moment I realised a terrible photo of me was on Snapchat, for thousands to see.'

Ok, I admit it: photography has never been an entirely voluntary medium.

Since it’s inception, the humble photograph has stuck to its steadfast promise to never lie. Like it or not, photos have always caught us out as unsuspecting bystanders, rife with bad angles unflattering poses. It shows humanity at it’s most raw, and is not always well received. One only needs to take a stroll down the hallway of your parent’s home to understand why.

And then came Snapchat.

Listen: The Young Mummy decided to Snapchat her labour. Mamamia Out Loud discussed it ahead of the birth.

The photo-sharing app was launched in September of 2011, and the world of photography has not been the same since. Instant, constant, and insatiable; Snapchat is rewriting the rules of photography – and rewriting the rules of social etiquette at the same time.

Question: have you ever being asked to be in a Snapchat video? Or, like me, do you often find yourself an unwilling participant in someone else’s Snap? Despite long (and much enjoyed) stints off social media, my social media shadow still manages to follow me around via the Snap videos of friends and strangers.

“Oh, that’s me!” I said in surprise as a friend showed me a video. I looked terrible. Normally, I would have deleted that photo from my phone, cast a quick curse on the photographer, and got on with my day. But there it was. Trapped in someone else’s Snapchat story, blasted out to the thousands with not a flower crown filter to save me.

Luckily, I learnt to move beyond the vanities of a bad photograph a long time ago (getting awkward headshots once every few months will beat it out you…) - but it did get me thinking. Is this a new chapter in modern photography? And if it is, what are the new rules?

Once upon a time, people would be asked if they would mind being in a picture. And if it was going out to the public, there were all kinds of release forms to sign. People had power. People had the right to say, ‘Hey! That’s my butt in your picture! You can’t publish that!’

But in 2017, your butt is their butt, and it’s going GLOBAL.

Chat before you Snap seems like an innocent enough request, but when you consider the brevity of Snapchatting - well, there hardly seems enough time. From what I can tell, Snapchatters are at it from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep.

They’re Snappin’ their breakfast, lunch, and dinner; their morning walks with the dog, and their evening jogs, too. They Snap everything from getting their hair cut to the food shopping, and if you happen to cross their path of intense life documentation? Too bad.

In fact, outrage at being filmed seems to have become a genre of its own in the world of online comedy.

Whether it’s an angry mum being caught out on a rant, a girlfriend caught singing along in the car, or a boyfriend enjoying a pedicure; to be Snapped unawares is apparently a very funny thing. But what if it does, in fact, cause serious offence? At what point do we have the right to protect our desire for privacy?

Privacy. A far-away dream, a relic of a bygone era. Some might argue that we’ve never really had privacy, always at risk of being captured in a photo, on film, in a book, in an article. In a story told to friends. But never before does it feel as pervasive and unstoppable as Snapchat. (And let’s face it, who would really have a problem being immortalised in a book…)

So, Snapchat Etiquette. Let’s practice.

“Hey, I’m taking a video for Snapchat, do you mind if you’re in it?”

“Hey, I’m adding a dog filter to your face, you down with that?”

“Hey, I know you have you have no makeup on and are singing along to Bieber on the couch at 9.30pm on a Tuesday eating a Cornetto, but do you mind if I post it online?”

And maybe, just maybe, when you find yourself asking that question, you will realise the absurdity of the situation and let your flatmate eat their Cornetto in peace.