The document discusses a study on the motivations of ordinary people for sharing Snapchat stories. The author conducted research and a survey. The survey found that over half of participants post to Snapchat to create a continuous narrative of their lives. Additionally, most said their stories accurately portray their lives. Forty percent agreed their Snapchat story serves as a reality TV-style view into their life. Nearly half said they post to let people know what they're up to, and almost 30% to entertain followers. This led the author to conclude that people use Snapchat to both share their lives and entertain others, just as reality TV does.

1. What are the Motivations for
Ordinary People to Share
Snapchat Narratives?
By: Phoebe Edwards

2. My research
 First, I went onto the good ol’ Google and researched what
has already been said about Snapchat Narratives…Surprisingly,
there really wasn’t much out there even though Snapchat
stories have been around for a few years now.
 For the most part, people have only talked about how
celebrities use Snapchat as another medium to advertise their
lives and brands. But no one has talked about how Snapchat
can give a regular person their own sort of Reality TV outlet.
 I’m not interested in celebrities though; I wanted to find out
why normal people post the types of stories that they do to
their MyStories. What’s their motivation?
 So, I created a survey that helped me answer my questions.

3. Questions Asked and Answered
 More than half of the participants said that they post
photos to their MyStory to create a continuous
movement of events and create a longer story than the
10 second maximum allows. This shows me that people
aren’t just interested in taking photos or videos and
showing them to people, but sharing parts of their lives.
 Further, an overwhelming majority of people said that
their stories are accurate representations of their lives.
This tells me that people aren’t simply on Snapchat for
fun, but to document parts of their lives.

4. Questions Asked and Answered (Cont.)
 One of the most important questions I asked was,
“Would you say your MyStory serves as a sort of Reality
TV look into your own life?”
 A solid 40% of people agreed that it did. Obviously, this
tells me that people do indeed think of their MyStory as a
normal person’s Reality TV, but I still don’t know why?
 The second most important question I asked was, “Why do
you post photos/videos to your MyStory?”
 Almost 50% of people said that they “want people to know
what they’re up to,” and almost 30% said that “they want
to entertain their followers.”

5. Analysis of My Questions
 My last question told me what I wanted to know: The
majority of people either post to entertain their
followers, or post to broadcast their lives.
 I asked myself what these two things have in common
and realized that they are the basis of a Reality TV
show. Think about it. Why do Reality TV shows exist?
Simply because celebrities want to share their lives and
entertain people by doing it.
 This helped me conclude not only why people post to
their MyStories, but also how it can be perceived as a
regular person’s Reality TV.