Researchers have noted an uptick in what is penned as ‘social media fatigue’. A phenomenon that has come to light in the wake of the pandemic, where online users have been overstimulated by a constant stream of information due to spending more time on social media. Since the dawn of social networking, there has always been a pressure to put forward your best self online. In an era where our digital selves co-exist with our ‘real’ selves, a growing importance has been placed on ‘authenticity’, begging the question, ‘what is the best way to tell my story?’ . Enter StoryTerrace, the nation’s top biography-writing service. Over the course of the past few years, Brits from all walks of life have been looking to have their tell-all memoirs documented in a way that is both tangible and authentic, as a response to the glossy and fragmented narratives that we are fed online.
The company has now completed over 3,500 unique stories of people from all walks of life, after a particular boom which began during the pandemic. This period highlighted how everyone has a story worth telling, and most importantly, the value of our personal stories during both the good times and the bad. This trend shows no signs of stopping either, as the biography-writing service currently has over 1,600 active projects ongoing – the most at any one time in the company’s history. With the lines between the digital and the real world becoming increasingly blurred, it can seem like we lose control of the way our stories are told – our lives are presented as a scattered series of poised photographs, meticulously thought-out captions and heavily-edited videos. This yearning for authenticity in storytelling, evident by the rise in popularity of ‘anti-Instagram’ social media platform, BeReal, is telling of an exhaustion in performing our lives for others. StoryTerrace’s mission is to provide ordinary people with a credible and beautifully-written account of their extraordinary and inspiring life stories. In the age where our stories are memorialized by a fragmented collection of Tweets and Instagram posts, a professionally produced memoir is one way to sincerely preserve your legacy.
How will we document this generation’s legacy?
With Gen-Z (those born from 1997-2012) being touted as ‘the first generation of true digital natives’, we must begin to think about how their stories will be told down the line. Having grown up during a particularly turbulent era – starting from 9/11 to landmark events such as the London Riots, the Brexit referendum and all the way to the national response to COVID-19, Gen-Z’s tend to be more politically involved than generations before. A generation born and bred by the digital needs a way to give an honest account of their experiences without the saturation of filters and FaceTunes.
Historic data from StoryTerrace shows that 16% of people haven’t had the time to reflect on their lives and what they’ve managed to achieve in years. Online, our achievements are reduced to dopamine-enhancing likes and comments, giving us a warped sense of validation. StoryTerrace provides a comprehensive way to sit still and meditate over the individual events and achievements that weave together to form our lives. As Gen-Z starts to age out of the classrooms and enter the workplace, it is important that their accolades be documented outside of the 140-character confine.
Rutger Bruining, Founder and CEO of StoryTerrace, comments on how the stories that leave the largest impact can’t always be found in store:
“Social media has made us lose control of our narratives – we have been reduced to filtered photos, comments, likes and Tweets that curate an image of us which can become unrecognizable to those we love. There’s a large shift towards authenticity in storytelling, in a world which constantly bombards us with images and narratives that are distorted by filters. When looking at the younger generation one has to think about how these stories will be preserved. Will future generations only be able to remember their ancestors through a carefully crafted Instagram feed?
“This generation has a colorful variety of inspriring stories to tell. In between the Tweets and TikToks there lies a rich bed of context that deserves to be documented, as we think of how generations down the line will not only remember us, but the turbulent times we live in, it is important to bring authenticity and validity back into the stories we tell. That’s the beauty of StoryTerrace – it democratizes the art of preserving the whole story.
StoryTerrace’s mission is to ensure that every life story is captured and passed on in a meaningful way. Its award-winning memoir writing service takes care of the whole process – matching clients with one of over 750 professional writers, interviewing, photo gathering, editing, designing, and printing their very own book. Books are on average 100 pages long, meaning that everyone can have their life story – or those of their loved ones – documented in a professionally curated biography or series of memoirs.
