Is There Value in Social Media Stories?

It would be a lie to say that social media is evil. It helps us connect with people, get inspired, entertained (I bet you discovered this newsletter on social media). Yet, I believe some features, like Stories, create more value for companies than users. Let’s take a closer look at problems with Stories and consider alternatives.

Outline:

1. Stories: origins and problems

2. Mathematics of attention

3. Time-sensitive and transactional content

4. Stories therapy

1. Stories: origins and problems

First, let's understand Stories' origins. Snapchat introduced stories in 2013. In 2016, the Instagram product team put Stories at the center of user attention. From a product perspective, it was a fantastic feature to increase daily engagement because users created and viewed more content. From a business perspective, new content now lets users see more ads.

With Instagram Stories, you don't have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won't appear on your profile.

However, like Sachin Rekhi, I'm not sure users get quality dopamine calories.

In the modern-day, there are thousands of these little distractions, all promise small amounts of dopamine, that can ultimately leave us feeling needlessly anxious and unsatisfied.

I see three main issues with Stories:

Short bites of information numb boredom: Stories’ short format prompts you to use it when you're bored or tired. Yet, it adds mental triggers and leaves you feeling more tired. Why not reflect on "why” you're bored or tired in the first place? For example, if you're scrolling through Stories during a boring meeting, why not reconsider if you need to attend this meeting. Or suggest how to make meetings engaging. That's harder than checking stories, but the reward is higher.

Artificial sense of urgency: Stories disappear after 24 hours, thus people feel the urgency to check it daily. You're afraid to miss something. One thing I learned, if something is valuable, it's likely to be saved for longer. Usually there is time-sensitive and transactional content - I’ll cover these in a minute.

Information fatigue: Social media helps us discover content. It can inspire to start a side project or help find a new book to read. However, with a sense of urgency and all types of content combined into one feed, we end up feeling overwhelmed. When you switch between a friend's vacation story to highlights of a business conference, you have no time to reflect, learn or even remember what you saw.

Content Consumption Based on Your Mood

My point here is that little bits of your attention and time invested into Stories can be saved and used for fulfilling activities like reading a book or hanging out with friends. Let me illustrate it with some numbers.

2. Mathematics of attention

According to Statista, internet user spends 145 min/day or 1015 min/week on social media. I tried to estimate how much time we need to catch up with 100 people online (not just watch their Stories).

Let's say you have 100 people who you care about or who inspire you. They may be posting once or twice a week. And it takes you 2 min to read each post on average.

Thus you need 6.5 hours to catch up on all the content. Even if doubled, it's 13 hours. However, people spend almost 17 hours a week on social media. Why? I believe it's partially due to the habit of checking Stories, followed by scrolling the rest of the feed. Again, an average person can save anywhere from 11 to 4 hours on more fulfilling activities without missing out on the value of social media.

3. Time-sensitive and transactional content

Lastly, to solve the problems, I want to propose a solution with two filters:

Time-sensitive: something that requires immediate attention. For example, news about the fire in your region or an urgent message from a boss during work hours.

Transactional: the opposite of the above. It's another vacation photo from a classmate you haven't talked to in years. Transactional content could be helpful, too, e.g., a new YouTube video but doesn't require your immediate attention.

My perfect week looks like this: I am available for colleagues, friends, and relatives and always see notifications for time-sensitive content. I enable "do not disturb" during the morning and late evening hours for rest. I go through the content on social media - transactional content - once a day or once a week. I go to a calm place, eat something, and read through articles from the entire week.

4. Stories therapy

I am not arguing you need to give up social media. Instead, I try to offer an alternative way to consume content based on time-sensitive and transactional filters. Don't worry if you missed a story from a friend. Next time you see them, ask: "Is there anything interesting I missed in your stories?". This question sparked a few interesting and long conversations for me. More importantly, take time to reflect on why you want to come back to social media. A slightly therapeutical question - Do you watch things that you ideally want to accomplish/possess in life but delay the happening of it? I am going to leave you with this question 🙂 but I would love to hear your thoughts if you're open to sharing.