The Spread of the Social Media Stories

Even since Snapchat became widely popular, the introduction of ‘stories’ has been copied among other forms of social media. This idea of ’stories’ originated from Snapchat - a way for users to share snaps (photos of videos sometimes with locations, stickers, and text over it) that are visible to all your ‘friends’ that last 24 hours before they’re automatically deleted, rather than disappearing for 1-10 seconds to a select number of users. Snapchat users can share these snaps in a narrative way as well.

But recently, Instagram (acquired by Facebook) and Facebook, as Facebook’s Messenger product have introduced ‘stories’ on their own platforms, angering many people within the tech sector and many Snapchat devotees. Miranda Kerr, who is engaged to Co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, cannot stand Facebook. In an expert from an interview she did with The Times, "'I cannot STAND Facebook,'  [Kerr] volunteers. She is not on Facebook itself, but she does have ten million followers on Instagram, which is owned by Mark Zuckerberg's company. Instagram recently introduced a range of Snapchat-esque features, which has drawn out her protective streak. ”’Can they not be innovative? Do they have to steal all of my partner's ideas? I'm so appalled by that. ... When you directly copy someone, that's not innovation.' And then a sudden look of panic crosses her face. 'Do I get to approve this interview? Crystal!' She admonishes her publicist who long ago drifted out of the conversation. 'Oh I don't even care. It's a disgrace. How do they sleep at night?'"

Snachat's April Fool's Day filter

I found this interesting because people consider Facebook to be an innovative technology that changed social media and communication. But when Facebook started, they were very similar to the them-popular platform, MySpace, except Facebook has some extra features including relationship status and was originally exclusive to Ivy League students. This isn’t Facebook’s first time copying other tech companies. In response, on April Fool’s Day this year, Snapchat released a geofilter taking a little jab at Instagram. 

As this ‘stories’ concept has been spreading across multiple social media platforms, there have been many Internet memes making fun of this. The Internet has joked that stories have become introduced and added to pregnancy tests, calculators, and even McDonald's kiosks.

What do you think? Is Facebook really being innovative? Do you use Instagram and/or Facebook stories or are you a Snapchat devotee? Or are these ‘stories’ features not really your thing?


Works Cited

Godwin, Richard. "Miranda Kerr: Motherhood, love and my billionaire boyfriend." Times2 | The Times & The Sunday Times. The Sunday Times, 6 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/miranda-kerr-sex-and-the-snapchat-ceo-the-life-of-a-frustrated-supermodel-9z70hhbtc>.

Kumparak, Greg. "Snapchat wins April Fools’ with its jab at Instagram." TechCrunch. TechCrunch, 01 Apr. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/01/snapchat-wins-april-fools-with-its-jab-at-instagram>.

Moreau, Elise. "Here's What You Need to Know About Posting Stories on Snapchat." Lifewire. N.p., 20 Apr. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-snapchat-story-3486000>.