• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 17, 2016

At the risk of navel-gazing, Snapchat is backing ‘Real Life’ -- a new site dedicated to the thoughtful discussion of social media trends and their broader cultural and commercial implications.

When the site officially launches on June 27, the plan is to post one article every day of the work week.

Nathan Jurgenson, a Snapchat researcher and self-proclaimed “social media theorist,” will run the site as editor in chief.

“Real Life will publish essays, arguments and narratives about living with technology,” Jurgenson notes in a new blog post.

But don’t expect gadget reviews or industry gossip, according to Jurgenson. Rather, the site “will be about how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices.”

Why did Jurgenson like the name “Real Life” for a site about the virtual world?

It’s partially a reference to REALLIFE Magazine -- a downtown New York art magazine that was written “by and about artists” back in the 1980s.

“By publishing writers who may not think of themselves as tech writers, but are acutely aware of how they use and are used by their devices, we hope to make room for a wider, better understanding of the Web. Something neither good nor bad, neither net negative nor net positive, but human in all the weirdness and complexity of that word,” Jurgenson explains.

Looking ahead, Jurgenson said the site may eventually expand to other media and formats.

It’s not clear whether Snapchat has plans to back more publications, but the effort does not appear to be financially motivated.