There was a time when social media seemed like an unstoppable force, but the 2020s have revealed the fragile underbelly of the once formidable industry. While TikTok, YouTube and the various platforms under the Meta umbrella continue to enjoy widespread usage, Facebook’s fall from grace and Twitter/X’s troubled tenure under Elon Musk point to a troubling future for the industry.
This has led many to speculate that social media could be experiencing its death throes, and recent data from a poll by the Morning Consult seems to support this theory. The survey asked users a simple question: are you posting less on your preferred media platform than last year? It turns out, a significant proportion of respondents answered “yes”.
28% of survey participants said that they were posting less frequently, and one might think that this would largely consist of older generations such as Gen X and Baby Boomers. However, Gen Z appeared to be posting least of all, with 37% of the youngest generation saying that they have reduced post frequency this past year.
31% of Millennials and 30% of Gen X said the same, with just 21% of Baby Boomers in agreement. If we took Boomers out of the equation, one in three, or around 32.6%, of Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X users are not posting as often as they used to. This seems to suggest that social media has lost its appeal to the younger crowd, and platforms like Facebook certainly seem to fit this by essentially becoming digital “retirement communities” thanks to their large number of senior users.
Earlier this year, Adam Mosseri stated that people are preferring to share posts and photos through direct messaging instead of public posts. Concerns surrounding privacy might be at the heart of the issue, and DM based social media use raises its own unique problems. There are no ads in DMs, at least not yet, so social media platforms will be unable to maximize revenue per user unless they start posting as frequently as they used to.
Read next: Decoding the Marketer's Mind: The Changing Landscape of Ad Investments
This has led many to speculate that social media could be experiencing its death throes, and recent data from a poll by the Morning Consult seems to support this theory. The survey asked users a simple question: are you posting less on your preferred media platform than last year? It turns out, a significant proportion of respondents answered “yes”.
28% of survey participants said that they were posting less frequently, and one might think that this would largely consist of older generations such as Gen X and Baby Boomers. However, Gen Z appeared to be posting least of all, with 37% of the youngest generation saying that they have reduced post frequency this past year.
31% of Millennials and 30% of Gen X said the same, with just 21% of Baby Boomers in agreement. If we took Boomers out of the equation, one in three, or around 32.6%, of Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X users are not posting as often as they used to. This seems to suggest that social media has lost its appeal to the younger crowd, and platforms like Facebook certainly seem to fit this by essentially becoming digital “retirement communities” thanks to their large number of senior users.
- Also read: Average Internet Speeds Have Nearly Doubled in 4 Years, But Some Countries Are Falling Behind
Earlier this year, Adam Mosseri stated that people are preferring to share posts and photos through direct messaging instead of public posts. Concerns surrounding privacy might be at the heart of the issue, and DM based social media use raises its own unique problems. There are no ads in DMs, at least not yet, so social media platforms will be unable to maximize revenue per user unless they start posting as frequently as they used to.
Read next: Decoding the Marketer's Mind: The Changing Landscape of Ad Investments
