The Student News Site of Hickman High School

Purple and Gold News

The Student News Site of Hickman High School

Purple and Gold News

The Student News Site of Hickman High School

Purple and Gold News

The power of Snapchat’s “Send-it”: Who is Chunkeymon?

Exploring the impact of social media engagement in schools

A feature on the social media app, Snapchat, allows students to join a posting platform that reaches anyone from their school, which has become popular among many students. The goal of this feature is to connect students from the same school. The common posts on the “school stories” are about fire alarms, school events, or anything related to the student body. 

 

One student, Mark Green, also known as Chunkeymon, took advantage of this opportunity to access the school and was met with unexpected results. 

 

“I was just bored and I saw that I could join this school story. So I joined it and I saw other people posting ‘send-it.’ So I said, might as well try and see how that works out,” Mark said.

 

Mark intended to connect with friends at school and start new conversations.

 

“Send it is a thing you can post, and people can click on a link and they can ask you questions, and you can respond to them by posting them on Snapchat,” Mark said. 

 

He posted a picture on the school story with a link to ask questions and didn’t expect the overwhelming amount of responses.

 

During his interview in the East Office, Mark carefully considered the questions he was given. (Sarah Won)

“I was expecting my friends to react to it. Not the whole entire school, so I was surprised when I woke up one morning the saw that over 400 people saw my first post.” Mark said.

 

With the ability to say anything on the link Mark had posted, students responded with a multitude of questions, comments, and anything they wanted to say.

 

“Some questions were normal. Some questions were not. I had to decide what questions to post and what not to post because some people wanted to mess around,” Mark said.

 

With so many responses, Mark had to make decisions about what was appropriate for the entire school to read.

 

 “You got to remember that this is on social media, so you have to follow the rules,” Mark said. 

 

He carefully considered what he was publicly responding to and if the response could hurt anyone who would see it. 

 

Curiosity about Chunkeymon spread around the school. Students sent questions that asked about other social media Mark might have, which led to promotions for his YouTube channel.

 

“I wanted to do something for fun and try to see if I can grow a community on my YouTube channel. So I can support that, boost off of that,” Mark said. 

 

After he posted about his channel, he was able to gain subscribers who would watch many of his videos, like them and boost his channel on the YouTube platform. 

 

“I post videos of me and my little brother hanging out. I posted a video of my dog. I post videos of me reviewing updates for this one game. And I made videos about me in VR, and a video of me showcasing my beta version of my game,” Mark said.

 

YouTube and Snapchat are not the only platforms Mark has created content on. He also has dedicated his time to creating a Roblox game for his brother. 

Mark hosted meet and greets in the commons after school at the height of his views. Mark and Calli Shelton (10) took a picture together. Photo courtesy of Calli Shelton.

Mark has created “A story mode city game on Roblox because my little brother wants to have a different type of game that is not too difficult. I told him that if I make a game, I’m gonna try really hard, but you better play it, and he said sure,” Mark said. 

 

Mark’s goal is to become a video game designer, and his passion for video games originated with Minecraft, a popular game among children and adults. 

 

“[Minecraft] kickstarted my imagination when I was younger, when I first played it,” Mark said.

 

The origin of “Chunkeymon” has been debated among some students, some who thought it meant Pokemon and Chunky together, and some thought it was a shortened version of Chunky Monkey. 

 

“My father and my mother gave me the nickname Chunky Monkey. When I got my [Nintendo] Switch, I started my YouTube career. I wanted to make my YouTube channel my name that’s on my Switch. So I tried to put my nickname [on] my Switch and I can only type in Chunkeymon so I stuck with that, and that’s become my thing now,” Mark said. 

 

With the mystery of his name revealed Mark described his background with this name. 

 

“I was a chubby baby, but I was also very active. So that’s why I was given that nickname. But in school, people see me as a content creator. So I see it as a name that people can identify me as that’s pretty simple.”

 

After a few weeks of posting daily, Chunkeymon disappeared. Students wondered where his account had gone and if he would post again.

 

“I was removed for some reason. I’m planning on making another Snapchat account because some people have been asking me to continue. I honestly might contact Snapchat support about it and see if they could figure it out so I can get back on the story,” Mark said. 

 

The continued absence of Chunkeymon from the school story is something that Mark is planning to take care of as soon as possible. In not too much time, Chunkeymon can be expected back on the scene. 

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