Back in March 2017, when the world was bad but we still could not fathom how much worse it could get, Facebook introduced the Stories feature to the platform. (At this point, you probably know how Stories work. But just in case: Stories are photos and videos that live on your account — like Instagram or Snapchat — for 24 hours before they self-delete.) By April, the idea that “[x thing] will now have Stories” had become a full-on meme. Instagram copied Snapchat by adding Stories in 2016. A year later, Facebook was adding them. By that logic, what wouldn’t be getting Stories? Graphing calculators. Pregnancy tests. Owen Wilson’s teeth. Stories! For! Everything!
As with all memes, the Stories gag died down as quickly as it had appeared and we went on with our lives. Well, most of us did. Except Facebook, which announced this week that groups on the platform will now [drumroll here] be getting Stories. This is in addition to the growing list of other things on Facebook, like Events and Messenger, that also already have Stories. Which — and I don’t have any data here except my own personal experience — it doesn’t really seem like anybody is using. Again, this is anecdotal, but the only time I’ve ever seen a friend post a Story was a two-part post. The first was a photo and the second was a note reading “sorry that was a mistake!” So do with that what you will. But congrats, I guess, to Facebook groups. Which now have Stories, too.
