No one is using Facebook stories, so it turned your friends into ghosts.
Facebook launched a new story feature in its main app last week, adding a Snapchat-esque feed
of ephemeral pictures and videos to the top of the News Feed. But
people are apparently less than enthusiastic about using it, which is
why Facebook seems to be testing a bit of encouragement for the new
feature.
Now, instead of showing a sad, empty feed devoid of
stories from any of your friends, Facebook is turning your friends into
ghosts who aren’t hip enough to use stories. So, instead of the blank
space that used to be there, Facebook will show grayed-out icons of some
of your more frequently contacted friends, regardless of whether
they’ve ever posted to their Facebook story before.
Tapping on one of the grayed-out portraits informs you that “So-and-so
hasn’t posted to his / her story recently,” the word “recently” here
doubling as “ever,” at least for most of my contacts, many of whom are
likely unaware that this is even a feature that exists or, if they are,
why they’d use it over Snapchat or Instagram.
There have been a few reports
of ghosted-out stories making their away around Twitter, but it’s
unclear right now whether the feature is rolling out across the board or
if it’s only to a small percentage of test users for now. At the time
of publishing, various members of The Verge staff reported seeing both styles of the feed.
Still, there is a certain irony to be had in Facebook
using the haunted spirits of your friends and family members to
encourage users to try out the story feature it so shamelessly ripped
off from the ghost logo-ed Snapchat.
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