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by shanev 2300 days ago
This will be popular, and might even replace regular usage, as Stories have in Instagram. It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual. It will help counter Twitter getting increasingly LinkedIn-like.

I made an app called Blink that did exactly this a few years ago: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/blink. Build it and they will come, not :)

7 comments

I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories".

Stories are great for the platform. They drive user engagement, and, hence, advertising.

As far as I can tell, they're terrible for the users. You have to constantly be active to not miss something, you can't just check back in after a few days. For some reason, comments are private only, which is almost never what I want -- as a poster, as a commenter, or as an observer. Contrast that with (say) a "normal" IG/FB post of a picture from the beach, where comments are public and a community of people and comment on it and reply to each other in a social way. Stories are basically broadcast-only. They're also MUCH more time-consuming to create.

I've only done a few stories, always when traveling solo, so I have time to kill and it was useful to learn something new the first time. The only positive thing I can say about them is that, because they're ephemeral, I feel less bad about posting some stupid snapshot of something unimportant/trivial.

That this is coming to Twitter is even more concerning, because it's already the most shouty, least-community driven social network, with the largest multiplier on saying trolling/annoying/controversial/stupid things in the pursuit of clicks and likes and retweets.

I find that Instagram stories, being ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours) have done a lot do reduce the impact of "instagram perfection". You get to see a bit more of people's real, everyday lives.

You're right that you miss things if you don't check it at the right time, but that's ok, you don't have to see everything.

I've stopped using Instagram to post pictures; I only use stories. I post a lot of trash/ephemera/jokes on stories. It's much more fun that having to figure out what to post. It's not permanent.
+1 to "you don't have to see everything" Isn't it already assumed that Twitter's feed algorithms isn't showing you "everything" you want to see. There is always stuff you'll miss? What is different about missing a story?
Huh. I generally think social media is a positive thing in my life, and often wonder why people get this FOMO/anxiety thing, but the few times I've noticed folks broadcasting their "perfect" lives, it's those using stories. And, again, it's not helped by the lack of human response. You don't get someone saying "man, that looks perfect!" followed by the OP saying "well actually, all these things went wrong and it was a disaster, but i got this one shot when everything came together" .. without that human interaction it's just a broadcast-only image, which seems to be meant for broadcasting perfection.

That may, however, just be a matter of the KINDS of people in my life who use stories, though. Selection bias.

Top influencers definitely curate what they post on their stories, to maintain an image of a perfect everyday life.
> I honestly couldn't disagree more with this assessment of "stories".

I generally agree. Anytime I see a platform move towards "stories", my engagement with that platform drops like rock.

That said, I belong to the 40+ segment and I suspect there might be a generational gap going on here. Basically just like with Snapchat is being intentionally terrible to use, to drive away us "elderly" from a platform designed primarily for the youth.

> It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual.

Which will, I suspect, drive analytics enhancements to help get under one's skin and/or sell users more junk. The tweet disappearing from the user-facing view will not prevent its being dissected and its information stored. And the point will be likely missed by most users...

I think this is what's driving tiktoks success (or at least why I am obsessed). Tiktoks bring an entirely new level of getting to know someone that I havn't ever met before that i've never experienced before on an app.
Wasn't this Snapchat back in the day? And Twitter before that?
Snap for sure! But that's more just for close friends, which I already know pretty well. Twitter isn't even close to TikTok in providing emotional connections to people you don't even know, imo.
How often do you click on the avatar of people you follow? I think it’s a rare action.
> It'll enable people to be more authentic, transparent, and casual.

Right. /s

Is this not how your friends use Instagram stories?

My friends will mostly post one or two amazing photos from their trip/event/whatever, then post various stories showing lots of casual moments along the way.

Some people put a LOT of effort into their story, but from watching most of my friends, and what I myself do, it's usually pretty casual.

If you think twitter is getting like LinkedIn, you gotta start following some more interesting people! It's the wildest thing I've ever seen almost every day.
Twitter is on a constant downhill ever since they restricted their API to force people to use their own a) shitty app or b) shitty website with c) shitty defaults.