This research explores the Snapchat and Instagram feature of “Stories” and aims to understand what users post in their “Stories” and how they make use of the feature to tell their story. The application of narrative theory theoretically informs the concept of digital storytelling, which is ultimately the practice of telling online stories. The methodology consists of a qualitative content analysis of Snapchat and Instagram “Stories”, observation of active ordinary users and in-depth semi-structured interviews to address the user’s perspective.

The main results indicate that there are themed patterns following narrative structures in Snapchat and Instagram “Stories”. For that reason eight categories were created and divided between the four narrative elements according to Barthes (1977) and these were actions (demonstrating emotions, eating, interacting), happenings (updates), characters (people, self- portraits and animals) and setting (environment). In addition, another result is that Snapchat and Instagram storytellers make use of seven means to tell their stories and create a narrative. These means are images, texts, videos, emoji, doodles, instant information and filters. Human beings are natural storytellers according to the Narrative Paradigm by Fisher (1984), which explains the popularity of the “Stories” feature, as well as the discovered categories based on narrative elements and the use of semiotic resources to make more sense of the stories told by users.