We Aren’t Posting on Social Media as Much Anymore. Will We Ever?
Lots of people log in to social media every day. Fewer and fewer are actually posting. Isaiah Hug spends roughly two hours a day scrolling through Instagram, but his last post to his main feed was over a year ago.
He occasionally posts stories, which vanish after 24 hours. “I don’t need to add more friction to my life and have people bickering about who I voted for or what I think," says the 24-year-old Marine artillery officer, who is based in Carlsbad, Calif. He prefers one-on-one and group chats—what he calls “private networking." Billions of people access social media monthly, but users are posting less and favoring a more passive experience, surveys of users and research from data-analytics firms say.
In an October report from data-intelligence company Morning Consult, 61% of U.S. adult respondents with a social-media account said they have become more selective about what they post. The reasons are varied: People say they feel they can’t control the content they see.
They have become more protective about sharing their lives online. They also say the fun of social media has fizzled. This lurker mentality is widespread, across Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook along with X and TikTok.
They have become some of the most powerful companies and platforms in the world due to heavy usage and interaction from users. Any threat to that interaction is a threat to their business. The companies are responding.
They are investing in more private user experiences like messaging, and making interactions more secure. And encouraging people to post to a more intimate audience—as with Instagram’s recently expanded Close Friends feature. David Kennedy, a 27-year-old office assistant in Chicago, has four different TikTok
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