I have a confession: I don’t fully understand stories in social media apps.

When you post a story, the intention is simple. You want your followers to see what you’re up to. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you hope they’ll react, send a reply, or even repost it (the highest honor a story can get). Who doesn’t want their story to be seen, liked, replied to, and reposted? :)

But does that actually happen?

Here’s what I’ve observed. Most people don’t even open your story. If they do open it and it’s a video, they probably won’t watch it until the end. And if they do watch until the end, they rarely go any further. No like, no reply, no repost.

So if that’s the fate of most stories, what exactly is the point?

The follower who never shows up #

When you follow someone, you’re giving a kind of consent. You’re saying: I’m interested in what this person shares.

Yet every day, the number of people who view your story is nowhere close to your follower count. Some followers simply aren’t daily users. Fair enough. But many of them open the app, see that you posted a story, and scroll right past it.

That’s strange, isn’t it? They chose to follow you, and then they chose not to look.

And here’s the part that bothers me most. From the poster’s side, the app shows a list of who viewed the story. Everyone who’s missing from that list, the poster is left to assume, ignored them. Maybe they did. Maybe they never even noticed the story. The poster has no way of knowing. The app is basically telling you: these people follow you, and they didn’t care.

If a person follows someone, shouldn’t it be the app’s responsibility to actually deliver that content to them?

The dopamine list #

Apps show you who viewed your story. It’s a small hit of dopamine. Someone saw it!

But when a follower views it and doesn’t like it or reply, what does that mean? “We saw your content but weren’t interested”? “We watched out of respect”? Or maybe they loved it and were just too shy to say so. The poster can read it any way they want, and that’s the problem. A view with no reaction is a signal that means almost nothing.

And this is exactly why I think stories carry more pressure than regular posts. A post doesn’t tell you who saw it. A story does. So every missing name feels personal.

Two sides of the same story #

The poster wants the message delivered and wants feedback. They rarely get much of it. They know that, and they post anyway.

The viewer sees the story and, more importantly, sees who posted it. Whether they tap on it has very little to do with how good the story is. It’s almost entirely about their relationship with the poster. Fans will view, like, and repost religiously. Close relatives feel obligated to view and maybe drop a like. Everyone else? It depends on their mood.

So the content barely matters. The relationship decides everything.

My fix: story cards #

Here’s what I’d change.

When a person opens the app, show the latest stories from the people they follow as a set of cards, right up front. Not buried in a row of small circles at the top that are easy to skip, but presented so the follower actually sees what the people they follow are up to.

From there, it’s entirely up to the viewer. Like it, reply, repost, or simply swipe it away. The point is that the story gets seen. And once every follower sees it, there’s no more guessing whether someone ignored you. They saw it. What they do next is their choice.

A few important details:

  • It’s on by default, but you can turn it off. Users who really don’t want intro cards can switch them off in settings.
  • It’s not about forcing anyone. It only needs to be enough that the poster gets some real output from posting.
  • Following should mean something. Right now, following someone is a single tap with zero commitment. With cards, following becomes a small promise: I’ll at least look at what you share.

Some will say, “But I follow people just so I don’t lose touch.” That’s exactly my point. If you don’t want to lose touch, the least you can do is view. Swiping away takes one second.

And if you really don’t want to see someone’s stories at all? Then maybe you shouldn’t be following them.

What about muting? #

Muting exists so people can quietly stop seeing someone without the social awkwardness of unfollowing a cousin or a colleague. I get it. But the current version creates exactly the confusion I’m describing: the poster sees a follower who never views anything and has no idea why.

So muting should either be more explicit, or it shouldn’t exist at all. A half-hidden option that leaves the poster guessing helps no one.

Won’t platforms have thought of this? #

Maybe. Apps optimize for engagement, and perhaps they’ve tested something like this already. But platforms also keep changing how stories work, and there’s always room for something new. Stories themselves were once a new idea. Cards could be the next step.

What this isn’t #

To be clear, I’m not trying to flood viewers with stories. Far from it. I’m suggesting a clean set of cards that makes the experience better for connecting with the people you actually chose to follow. Right now, viewing a story feels like an obligation, and not viewing it feels like a statement. Neither is healthy.

In the end #

I believe stories in social media apps are mostly broken. They don’t do the one job they’re supposed to do: let the people who follow you see what you’re up to.

This is my opinion, of course. But making stories a little more relevant, by making sure followers actually see them, feels like a better strategy for everyone: the poster, the viewer, and the app itself.