Social Stories, entertainment and addiction

Our social life now seems to be ruled by a single commandment: thou shall share. Social networks have completely transformed our interpersonal relations and our approach to everyday life. Every moment, even the most trivial, can be perfect for sharing something about our daily life with anyone. The steps we take, the places we visit, the television programs we watch, and the faces of the people we love all become a likely reason of interest for others.

Social networks are the most democratic means of communication between us: they give a voice to anyone, without distinction, going beyond social classes, ages, and sometimes even decency. Moments become images and videos: like the small pieces of a big puzzle, they create a story.

Stories are a brilliant invention of Snapchat, the social network primarily used by Millenials to share short media content. The photos and videos shared on Snapchat profiles are only visible for 24 hours, after which they are deleted. The same applies to private messages:once opened by the recipient, they cannot be viewed again.

The users of this revolutionary social network also have at their disposal a wide variety of filters and stickers that are updated every day to make their posts original and unique. These posts with images and short videos accessorized with filters, stickers and colorful phrases tell their story and keep their loyal followers in the loop about what’s going on during the day.

The great little Snapchat app was too good of an opportunity for Mark Zuckerberg, the genius who forever changed the way we communicate, who took advantage of it to further expand his social empire, adding the same function first to Instagram in August 2016, then to Facebook and even to Whatsapp, transforming his users into genuine storytellers.

So now we have several places for telling our stories that, day after day, have gained more ground and become the main communication tool used by social networks. Influencers and ordinary people, moving along that fine line that separates entertainment and addiction, all feel the need to tell their story with just a tap of their smartphone, without wondering if someone, on the other side of the screen, is actually interested in viewing them.