Facebook unveils a new user-generated feature - Stories

Facebook, the massive social network of nearly 1 billion users who spends their day sharing their baby pictures, high school photos and vacation shots, is built on sharing. With all that sharing going on great stories can fall through the cracks. Now a new feature has been unveiled called Facebook Stories. The new site aims to showcase how Facebook users use the site in compelling ways. Each month the site features a different theme—the theme for August is “Remembering.”

One example is the story of 27-year-old Mayank Sharma, who lost his memory after contracting meningitis. Sharma used Facebook to discover the memories he had lost due to contracting the disease. He credits Facebook with helping him “rebuild” his life. While Sharma’s story is an extreme example, it shows the type of stories Facebook is capable of.

Other showcased features include a group in Guelph, Ontario using the town’s collective memory to save an important local building. Plus Facebook is showcasing  a monthly  selection of books to read, musical playlists from Spotify, and selected articles from the New Yorker Magazine.

Another monthly feature is the Infographic, which is updated each month. This month’s edition looks at what we share most. According to Facebook, the most common story shared on the timeline is on travel, which makes up 42% of such stories.

That was followed by stories on moves, posted 18 percent of the time, and the ever-popular relationship change, which appeared 10 percent of the time.

These first stories were handpicked by Facebook, but future editions will include submissions from users. Those who think they might have an interesting story to share with the world via Facebook Stories can submit theirs through an online form.