Cowbird

Cowbird: Microblogging Platform for Storytelling

Discover Cowbird, a unique microblogging platform where users share personal stories through various media types, fostering engagement and community.

What is Cowbird?

Cowbird is an online storytelling community launched in 2012. Its purpose is to enable people to share their personal life stories and experiences in a microblog format. Cowbird aims to foster empathy, understanding, and human connection through storytelling.

On Cowbird, users post short autobiographical stories ranging from a single paragraph to a few pages of text. Stories can be enhanced with photos, audio clips, and videos. The streamlined, distraction-free interface focuses on the text and media of one story at a time. Readers can show appreciation by “reblogging” a story to share it with their own followers, “favoriting” it, or posting a comment.

Cowbird is designed for intimate, emotive storytelling as opposed to status updates. The site’s guidelines stipulate that stories must be true and personal rather than articles, commentary, or fiction. This creates an environment for thoughtful life reflections and vulnerable sharing of meaningful memories. Users have recounted life-changing moments, family histories, personal growth journeys, experiences with mental illness, and more.

While anyone can read stories for free on Cowbird without an account, posting stories requires signing up for an account. Cowbird is a bootstrapped startup based in Montana founded by entrepreneur Jonathan Harris. The technology and design of Cowbird aim to recreate the nostalgia and emotional connection of vintage diaries and letters within an online, public space.

Cowbird Features

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