Have We Passed Peak Social Media? (ft.com) 55
Social media usage peaked in 2022 and has been on a steady decline since. An analysis of 250,000 adults across more than 50 countries by the digital audience insights company GWI found that adults aged 16 and older spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms at the end of 2024. That figure is down almost 10% from 2022. The decline is most pronounced among teenagers and people in their twenties.
Usage has traced a smooth curve upward and then downward over the past decade. This is not simply the unwinding of increased screen time during pandemic lockdowns. The data also captured a shift in how people use these platforms. The share of people who report using social media to stay in touch with friends, express themselves or meet new people has fallen by more than a quarter since 2014.
Opening the apps reflexively to fill spare time has risen. North America is an exception to the global trend. Social media consumption there continues to climb. By 2024 it reached levels 15% higher than Europe. Meta and OpenAI recently announced new social platforms that will be filled with AI-generated short-form videos.
Usage has traced a smooth curve upward and then downward over the past decade. This is not simply the unwinding of increased screen time during pandemic lockdowns. The data also captured a shift in how people use these platforms. The share of people who report using social media to stay in touch with friends, express themselves or meet new people has fallen by more than a quarter since 2014.
Opening the apps reflexively to fill spare time has risen. North America is an exception to the global trend. Social media consumption there continues to climb. By 2024 it reached levels 15% higher than Europe. Meta and OpenAI recently announced new social platforms that will be filled with AI-generated short-form videos.
Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:5, Informative)
Outside. Like, with trees and stuff.
Re:Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:5, Funny)
“It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.”
(hands you a smartphone)
Re: Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:2)
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In the US, will they shoot you?
Settle down now.
American doorbells still go “ding-dong”. And even Sarah J. Connor is answering the door unarmed, snickering at your paranoia.
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Re: Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:2)
If you felt you needed a cellphone with you when outside in the nineties, you took your cellphone with you. They cost about £13 per month and texting people information was really useful.
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Back in the late 80's and early 90's, I'd go to a payphone and dial my Mom's pager. It was 20-35 cents a call back then.
Re: Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:2)
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Re: Yes. The new hot trend is "taking a walk" (Score:2)
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The article is paywalled, but I'm 99% sure this report is saying that per capita use is down (controlling for population changes).
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I'm an American I'm not counting my country as developed anymore if I ever would
I think you don't know a lot about third world countries.
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And no, I refuse to call a country that doesn't even have a functioning healthcare system a first world country. Never mind the fact that our democracy is collapsing. But hey how about those trans girls in sports!
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90% of the U.S. population has health insurance. Could be better, but saying we don't have a functioning healthcare system is a stretch.
But don't worry, in 1,205 days, President Newsom will fix everything.
Re: So estheticians had a problem (Score:2)
A stupidly large segment of US households are one major medical incident away from going broke. Insurance is there to maximize profits and sponsor naming rights on arenas and stadiums, not to actually help people.
I sprained my MCL years ago and got a prescription for a knee brace. My insurance was charged $400 of which around $150 came out of my pocket. Little did I know I could buy the exact brace direct from the company for $85.
Health care in the US is
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>>90% of the U.S. population has health insurance.
Not for long. The Felon in charge and all his Minions are working hard to eliminate subsidies. I work in budgeting for a national healthcare provider. Expectation for 2026 is a reduction in membership, with that reduction being mostly the healthy people who feel they don't need insurance. So, revenues will go down, but costs won't go down. (The healthcare provider I'm talking about is both an insurance company and a hospital system.)
Also, I'm pretty su
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Could be better, but saying we don't have a functioning healthcare system is a stretch.
So why did the United States have the most COVID deaths in the world and one of the highest percentages of death among people who caught COVID? I agree we have a functioning health care system, it is just functioning extremely poorly.
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Almost all US healthcare spending is by the government. And the US government spends more per person on health care than any other country spends government+private. By a lot.
https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
A large majority of that government spending is direct spending on Medicare and Medicaid, not subsidies for insurance. So when you complain that the US "doesn't even have a functioning healthcare system", the most obvious reason is because our governments have broken the system.
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slivergrunt: Was it over when the estheticians bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: [to Boon] Estheticians?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Text to speech is a harsh Mistress (Score:2)
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Every sperm is not actually sacred, that was just a movie.
Sponsored content (Score:2)
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But the ads themselves are fun interactive experiences. Leaving sarcastic comments on Facebook ads can be a fun past time, especially when others join in.
Ultimately it doesn't matter what the content is, as long as you're getting that dopamine rush when someone likes your comment.
One can only hope. (Score:4, Insightful)
One can only hope this is the case.
Instead of being the Great Unifier, Social Media ended up being The Big Chisel: Finely crafted of the hardest vitriol, finely honed to a razor's edge by greed. A tool to split and divide.
Sometimes I get all misty-eyed for the days of One Common Dialog, which was put out by The Big Three (ABC / CBS / NBC)
Then I remember all of them lie like rugs, and Pulitzer and Hearst were the biggest liars before TV.
So yes. I hope this piece of shit is on the decline, and people think more.
Walks in parks are good. Pick up disc golfing, go for a round, that's two hours, a couple of joints, some Beethoven, and for those two hours, all is good. Until you shank one into the lake.
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It's easy to get to your first 3 chord tune, and has room to grow as your skill grows, you can have a lifetime of enjoyment and satisfaction.
In the hands of an expert, guitar may be a better instrument than piano, or a violin, imho.
I play piano. After I discovered Bach sonatas, partitas, and other mostly violin pieces played on guitar, I went to heaven. The guitar is more expressive than the piano, and less screechy than the violin (violin takes much longer to a
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aaaand you can play those on guitar too? tip o' the hat...
Bach is my favourite too
Social media is becoming... (Score:2)
...increasingly useless to me
It's filled with scams, ads, "suggested" things, and AI slop
It seems to get worse each day
And then I read about FB trying to develop AI "friends"
They are a strong contender for gold in the olympics of stupid ideas
Social Media Became Anti-Social Media (Score:2)
Dark prediction (Score:2)
But I suspect that won't happen.
Becauuuse... chicks wiggling their asses on TikTok have enduring appeal, but especially to 10 year old boys, or anyone new to phones/social media. I had an Indonesian client, a well heeled lawyer. He explained something to me about the attitude there. If your phone was preloaded with shitware, or you get shitware by downloading apps, or by any means, the average Indonesian doesn't care...
kinda like the internet (Score:2)
The early internet was more about individuals doing things and connecting. By 2025 the internet is dominated by a few big players and most of the individuals have given up.
Social media used to be about connecting to people. Increasingly it is about connecting you to ways to spend or vote. Increasingly, the content isn't even made or consumed by humans.
We've lost the human connection.
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Who wants this? (Score:3)
Meta and OpenAI recently announced new social platforms that will be filled with AI-generated short-form videos
So only AI will watch it in order to generate even more of the same content? Pass.
Life's too short to spend it on social media. 20 minutes of scrolling and I've been told what to buy, what to like, who to hate, what to be outraged about, why I'm not attractive enough, what exciting thing someone is doing that I'm not doing...all while the company can jam in as many ads and "engagement" opportunities as possible. It's exploitative and exhausting and there's no reason to visit anymore.
In the early days of Facebook, it was kind of fun. Catching up with old acquaintances, seeing if the old high school quarterback made a life beyond high school for himself, seeing if old romantic partners found love, etc. But now it's all exploitation and manipulation and profit-driven, and it's just exhausting. So social media, go away.
not surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
well it sucks now (Score:2)
it sucks balls.
Social media is good Enshittification is bad (Score:4, Interesting)
However, picture facebook with actual bot management and the did some basic common sense stuff to keep Russian trolls off it...as well as treated political discussion like porn so you can filter it if you don't want to see it...like how reddit filters porn. It would be quite useful to see what distant relatives are up to or what local community events your town or church are hosting.
I want the positive aspects. I just don't want to hear the obnoxious rants of my elderly relatives or mentally disturbed former classmates as well as their opinions on immigrants. I don't care that they have them or want to share them, I just don't want to read them. We NEED social media in it's proper form. Unfortunately, Zuckerberg has proven to be an exceptionally shitty CEO and aggressively buys up competitors. But a social media with common sense filtering that cared about its users and kept the ads to a reasonable level is sorely needed by the world.
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Zuck fell asleep at the wheel and made it a cesspool.
Zuck didn't fall asleep at the wheel. He was driving straight for the cesspool, wide awake, and on purpose from the beginning. Anyone who couldn't see where he was going was simply not looking.
We NEED social media in it's proper form.
I don't disagree, but if you want to supplant the public square with an online space, it needs to be decentralized and ideally should actually belong to the public.
I might be old (Score:2)
There also seems to be a race over how many followers one wants to accumulate, it seems like a weird achievement zoomer are into. That can't be healthy
Is peak the right word? (Score:2)
I was thinking something along the lines of "Low Social Media"
Nadir Social Media?
Maximum Evil Social Media?
Worst Possible Social Media?
I hope so (Score:5, Insightful)
It's gradually getting less useful (Score:2)
It's gradually getting less useful as it's becoming more and more overrun with bots.
Commercial Venture (Score:2)
What counts as consuming social media? (Score:3)
I'm not sure what counts as consuming social media... I don't use e.g. Facebook, TikTo or Instagram.
But am I doing it while:
1) reading the article (on FT) referenced by the story on /? /.?
2) reading the comments here on
3) posting this comment?
4) watching a video on youtube?
5) reading comments to a video on youtube?
Have we passed peak RTO? (Score:2)
Canâ(TM)t social media as much when youâ(TM)re commuting for hours, huh.
OMG Ponies! (Score:2)
IMNSHO, peak social media was here quite a few April 1st ago, when, IIRC, Cmdr Taco et al made this site pink for a day.