Why 55% of Americans Stopped Posting On Social Media (pcmag.com) 67
A new Incogni survey suggests Americans are pulling back from social media, with more than half saying "maintaining an online presence feels like work" and 55% reporting they post less than they did five years ago. "The full study concludes that there's been a significant shift in public attitudes toward social media," reports PCMag. "Where it was once fun and relaxing, it's now growing dark and angsty..." From the report: As the chart shows, there's also a clear correlation with age. A full 60% of Gen Z respondents feel the pain of maintaining a social presence. Perhaps they have a niggling hope that they might still be discovered as an influencer? Those of us in the Boomer category are clearly more relaxed about it, with just 38% saying that maintaining a social presence feels like work. The survey quizzed respondents about how they feel when they don't keep up with checking their socials and, by extension, how they'd feel if they just plain quit. They were given choices, both positive (peace, relaxation, and relief) and negative (anxiety, fear of missing out, and discomfort).
Overall, positive reactions held slightly greater sway, with an average of about 21% compared with 19% for negative reactions. The Gen Y contingent accentuated that split, with 25% positive and 21% negative, while Gen X went even further, with 20% positive and just 13% negative. But the Gen Z group flipped the results, identifying 27% negative and 26% positive reactions to going without social media.
There's another force pushing folks away from the socials: increasing politicization. Of the survey's respondents, 44% agreed that political content is driving people away from social media, and only 20% disagreed. Among Gen Z respondents, the impetus was stronger: 48% agreed, and just 13% disagreed. These negative feelings associated with politics only serve to highlight the positive reactions to deleting your social media.
Are you posting less on social media than you did five years ago, and are you being more selective about who can see what you post? Then you're with the majority. More than half of the respondents answered yes to each of those questions. But would you ever parlay fewer posts into no posts (aka quit posting entirely)? When asked what it would take to finally get them to terminate a social media account, a die-hard group of one in six respondents said there's nothing that could make them quit. But more than half could picture quitting due to security concerns, and almost half accepted the possibility that harassment or hate speech could send them packing. Others cited the amount of time wasted on scrolling through social media and the mental health threats of doomscrolling.
Overall, positive reactions held slightly greater sway, with an average of about 21% compared with 19% for negative reactions. The Gen Y contingent accentuated that split, with 25% positive and 21% negative, while Gen X went even further, with 20% positive and just 13% negative. But the Gen Z group flipped the results, identifying 27% negative and 26% positive reactions to going without social media.
There's another force pushing folks away from the socials: increasing politicization. Of the survey's respondents, 44% agreed that political content is driving people away from social media, and only 20% disagreed. Among Gen Z respondents, the impetus was stronger: 48% agreed, and just 13% disagreed. These negative feelings associated with politics only serve to highlight the positive reactions to deleting your social media.
Are you posting less on social media than you did five years ago, and are you being more selective about who can see what you post? Then you're with the majority. More than half of the respondents answered yes to each of those questions. But would you ever parlay fewer posts into no posts (aka quit posting entirely)? When asked what it would take to finally get them to terminate a social media account, a die-hard group of one in six respondents said there's nothing that could make them quit. But more than half could picture quitting due to security concerns, and almost half accepted the possibility that harassment or hate speech could send them packing. Others cited the amount of time wasted on scrolling through social media and the mental health threats of doomscrolling.
It's bots and ragebait, thats why (Score:5, Insightful)
People have figured out that rage bait is the major way to drive interaction with posts, Facebook knew long before, there was a report about that.
It's clear it's senseless bots spamming narratives for whatever side you don't like targeting you to get you to engage.
There is zero point in responding, it's a bot farming for a attention. Again, common sense not applied. They always think their little pet projects will keep the peasents engaged, but as usual, it's failing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Both can be true. It might have burned out the same regardless if bots were present or not, but now we'll never know.
I used to respond to some posts and try to give it a grounded response but I quickly realized I was just being farmed for attention and every post was rage bait, and often the exact same posts but from all these 'differen't' people, who totally just share that opinion.
Re: (Score:2)
It's funny how everyone is a "bot" when they post something. Generally, when that is said, the person responding has nothing useful to counter the post so goes with some generic nonsense to make themselves sound like they know something.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well everyone isn't, but I noticed the same exact posts and exact words by many accounts as if it was their own sharing, or 'meme' text, but you know, the image and borders are slightly different, but constantly? No, that's be bots.
Re: (Score:2)
I started posting less on Facebook when I realized that the only things that I posted that were getting likes were pictures of my kids. And most of them were from older relatives who were too lazy to visit their grand kids.
This shit used to be fun, but now it's more social obligation and I don't want to play this game anymore.
Re: It's bots and ragebait, thats why (Score:2)
Meanwhile, every other entry in the feed is an advert.
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile, every other entry in the feed is an advert.
Every other entry? Try every entry. Something like 1% of my Facebook feed is actual organic content from friends. 14% or so is from groups. The other 85% is ads. And I'm being optimistic when I say that it is only 85%. When I see about the first or second ad, I close Facebook, because it's just going to be ads all the way down after that.
Re: It's bots and ragebait, thats why (Score:2)
These days, I have to sift through my feed to get some decent posts. The algorithm figured out that I easily engage to troll Trump worshipping posts and floods my feed with them. It is hell... Oh and it expands with more crap. Now religious fa
Re: (Score:2)
I love my Facebook groups. I have weird hobbies. Laser cutting, cnc machining, programming microcontrollers in assembly, analog electronics, you get the point. Not many real people to talk to about this, but plenty of enthusiastic people online that want to help out.
Before facebook there were forums. Many of those forums migrated to facebook, and now the good hobby stuff is harder to search than a forum, and tied into Zuckerberg's dirty ecosystem. It's a step backwards.
Social Media Uses have become negative (Score:5, Insightful)
In its early days, social media was a fun, amusing pastime. Today, it's the source of political and social manipulation -- perception management -- by both people, corporation and state-sponsored interests. And let's not forget the anguished advertising industry, that works very diligently to mine, distract, track and monetize nearly everything they can.
It's not fun anymore. At times, it has become outright immature and banal. Look at products like TikTok, Facebook and what they were *really* designed for.
I'm old enough to remember where compute resources were useful, they helped get things done -- as they got more powerful, the impact on society became more negative. Is it human nature or corporate interests? I think it's both, but one clearly understands and manipulates the other (corporate), and so it goes.
Having said that, there are positive uses, such as sharing information -- as much as people use terms "sheeple" and other terms, which are often true, I believe the public (those of us that think for ourselves) are much smarter, more well-informed, even closer, because of these tools -- but hopefully those of us also know how to moderate our consumption of it.
Remembering that the ultimate social benefit is, when possible, in person.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Petty flame wars about which platform was best
But abusers were easily kicked off, where as today they are the corporate sponsors.
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/co... [smbc-comics.com]
It's AI and "the algorithm" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's AI and "the algorithm" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
That's exactly it. Why would you even post to social media if you come to it expecting news or celebrity updates? It's no longer for your content, it's for whatever the algorithm is serving up, which is never people like you.
Re: (Score:3)
I signed out of Facebook in 2016 and haven't been back. It was like that back then. My feed was only updates from 'friends'. Guess I'm glad I haven't been back.
I quit because it was fake. People only post about the good times. It leaves you thinking everyone else has a better life than you, and I realized I was doing that to other people.
Re:It's AI and "the algorithm" [competing] (Score:1)
I think I have a funny angle on this branch, but I think it's an expired discussion anyway...
The problem is that the AIs are better at social chatting than many, probably most, of the random identities you encounter on "social media" websites. So from that perspective, the algorithm is mostly sabotaging the competition.
And counter-evidence from discussions with AI "support" chatbots be darned.
or they can't (e.g. shadowbanned) (Score:2)
I think, I'm shadow banned on reddit. I can barely post anything on any reddit/sub. My karma is only about 500. I'm guessing my CQS is low "r/WhatIsMyCQS" but that too won't post, so I don't know. Does anyone know if that's a equivalent to a company kissass score ;P ...cause, in the past, I have tried to call companies out on bad practices.
I don't actually like or use social media much, but when I have questions and/or try to call attention to something I see as taking advantage of people, I have tried to
What's less than zero? (Score:4, Funny)
It's hard for me to post less, since I never post at all. Unless you call /. social media, which is a lot closer than calling it a tech discussion site.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Less than zero. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1)
slashdot 2026 is trolls and flamewars, and its why you dont see a lot of 4 digit ids posting, nothing of value here, just a distraction
Re: (Score:2)
that's true, but at least it's not negative value yet
because fuck you zuck, cuck and your AIs (Score:2, Funny)
I don't need a constant, incessant stream of bullshit and advertising.
so suck my dick and choke on it to death.
MPAR (Score:3, Insightful)
Smart people lose interest in social media when they realise they're just arguing with the TV because most people are NPCs who can't do anything but repeat The Current Narrative.
It's become even worse now half the posts are AI-generated and half the rest are paid political grifters. If I want actual discussion I got to private web forums where smart people hang out.
Re: (Score:2)
From experience (Score:4, Interesting)
I quit posting to social media in 2018, for two main reasons:
1. It is clear attention has become the new currency on the Internet. Everybody is so desperate for attention that they are willing to sacrifice anything to gain their 5 minutes of fame. No wonder why people are comparing it to work: it has become the livelihood of some.
2. I got tired of being the product. No wonder why a handful can earn more on social media than a blue collar job, but if you are willingly feeding the system and you still did not realize how much of your privacy and life you lost without any sort of compensation, I only feel sorry for you.
I still have accounts I use to read content, but not a single new post has been made for 8 years. It is leisure to me, and given no app is installed, there is much less for them to profit from me.
Re: (Score:2)
No one is going to pay for social media either and there are very few example
joined fb for the people, chased away by corp (Score:5, Interesting)
When I first joined facebook, my feed was my family and friends commenting on their lives. I'd say what I was doing, I'd like or comment on what others were doing. We had discussions. I remember comment threads 40 posts long going back and forth on ideas. I knew everyone on my feed. Today (if I even bother to log in), I look at the notifications to see if there are any messages from someone I know to me (there never is), and the feed is almost entirely political groups I didn't chose, products I don't want to buy, non-reddit summaries of screenshots of reddit AITA posts, neighborhood group "need recommendation for kitchen cabinet painters", or AI generated "she was shocked to discover what her husband was really doing on weekdays" crap. every 40th story is pictures my nephew's cats but no mention of that they're actually doing, because people don't like to say what they're doing on the internet anymore. everyone's so afraid of how their information can be used against them that they won't post anything about anything, and i don't either.
i joined facebook for the people. i left because of the corporations.
Bots and Politics (Score:2)
I don't want to talk to either.
Jan 6 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is the real answer. A lot of people are afraid of the speech Nazi's that ruin the lives of anyone committing wrongthink. They know the social media companies are moderated by privileged tech weirdos that are protected and immune, and readily bury the people they hate with no consequence. Sane people don't engage with stuff like that.
I only post on Slashdot (Score:2)
It was ragebaiting that finally ended it for me. I was already one foot out the door on SM, but that was the end. I already deal with enough bullshit during the day.
Re: (Score:2)
I only post on Slashdot, which guarantees very few people see what I post. /j
I follow some people on Bluesky, but hardly post at all there.
Face to face is better (Score:3)
Back in the early 2000's (before smartphones and social media) I used to work at a company where we'd go out to lunch almost every day as a group. There were people of both political persuasions (this was in the US) and we'd have real thoughtful discussions about politics face-to-face. Feelings were on display. People were a little exasperated at times. But everyone went back to work and worked together and got shit done, and were respectful to each other.
A few years ago I was back in the US on a job, and a bunch of us were going out to lunch, and I said, "is so-and-so coming?" and they said, "no, he won't come with us. He's a democrat." I guess they didn't consider Canadians democrats because I was still invited. But that's how bad it's gotten, and let's not kid ourselves... it's entirely social media that's changed how people communicate.
I was at dinner with a group of people (in Canada) a year ago. My mother and an acquaintance started arguing over some kind of politics. In my mind it was pretty mild and they did listen to each other. She apologized to me later, and I said, "No, don't apologize! I want people to spend time talking face-to-face! It's way more civil than what gets said online, and you were both listening to each other." It's not like they stopped talking to each other... they still have pleasant conversations now when they see each other.
I suggest getting to know people who disagree with you, and just spend some time together. Ideas only change when people feel listened to.
Cold War paranoia (Score:3)
Some of us still cynically hang onto our Cold War experiences. Once we started realizing that border agents can search your phone if you travel within 100 miles of a border, we got a little paranoid about what the government would find in our profiles and on our devices.
With my text messages, there are quite a few conversations that end with "hang on, let's talk voice" or "let's meet up later". I'm not the only person that is distrustful of the power that the federal government has. And of course, anyone with a half a brain distrusts what private corporations are going to do with your data once they get their claws on it.
I'm certainly posting less frequently (Score:2)
I'm primarily on Facebook and most of what you see are recommended groups / ads / etc. I used to see more from friends and that's what I want to see.
Politics is cancer. (Score:3)
Ignoring political bait doesn't work, like any cancer the only way is to completely cut it out of the forum or that forum will die a slow but steady death.
Sadistic Circus (Score:2)
Social media is a real marketplace of ideas gone wrong. It's like walking into a room and having hundreds of people suddenly start screaming at you while doing obnoxious "look at me" dances, with the audience gleefully going along with it and tearing apart anyone who disagrees. It's exhausting. Why contribute to that? Preening before that unblinking eye is a sick game only attractive to narcissists.
It brings to mind an episode of Star Trek: Voyager which I watched recently: Season 2 Episode 23, "The Thaw."
Enshitted (Score:2)
Yes, like so many other things, social media has turned to garbage mostly because of greed. Greed of the site owners who want to maximize their billions with ads, and greed of the posters looking for a quick buck (and fame) by posting ragebait and AI trash.
The scourge of politics infecting everything is also a factor. I've seen enough propaganda for a lifetime and resent how it's been used as a tool to break people's minds (USA here).
I also am not keen on enriching evil billionaires even more than they ar
Thankful for the privacy issues (Score:2)
When Classmates was still a thing - God I'm old - I found it to be fun and useful. So when Facebook came along, I was very interested.
Fortunately, I already had a major distrust of tech giants, and the only way I could use FB was by entering some private info which I was unwilling to provide. (I forget what it was - may have been a phone number). So I said "Fuck that" - and that was my last interaction with FB beyond what little tracking they might have been able to do with what I had already given them. I
Walked away from FB (Score:2)
I'd rather go for a walk (Score:2)
I'd rather go for a walk than use social media. And if you knew how lazy I am, that's saying something.
I still post a bit (Score:2)
I manufacture machines for glasswork. I use social media to see what glassworkers are making and inform them of product availability.
I've noticed that there are less and less glassworkers and more ads and crap. It's getting very close to a waste of time.
Even worse, if I post an opinion, the responses never directly address the point I'm making. Every responder seems to pick a vaguely related topic to rant about, often hatefully.
the juice isn't worth the squeeze (Score:2)
1) there's no feedback of any value, at least not worth the effort. Any post can be immediately swarmed by bots or by humans that are little more than such. It happens here; you might be posting about the functionality of light switches and you'll get 5 anon posts about being a MAGA cuck and how it's Trump's fault; likewise you might post asking legit questions about data centers and have 5 anon posts calling you a communist woke traitor. Why bother connecting your brain to social media if all you're get
Cancelled FB, could't cancel LinkdIn (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Well maybe Icogni is for you! For a low monthly fee you can take advantage of their services and reduce your digital footprint. https://incogni.com/benefits/d... [incogni.com]
They're the sponsors of this post, you know? We're actually all discussing an ad here.
Re: (Score:2)
Fill people's feeds with garbage.... (Score:2)
2020? (Score:2)
I stopped posting on social media and left it entirely around 2020. It's a fucking cesspool of stupid jokes, endless reposts, and almost no real information or genuinely interesting new knowledge.
I still have accounts on X, Facebook, and Instagram, but only because they require a valid account to read comments on posts. I sometimes do that because I'm curious to know what people are thinking.
I had a VK account (the Russian equivalent of Facebook), but I quit after Durov sold it to people aligned with the Kr
The network effect works both ways (Score:2)
15 or 20 years ago, social media grew because you joined knowing that your friends and family had joined. Now the network effect has flipped. I rarely see a post from anyone I know any more. It's easy to walk away knowing that your friends and family have already left.
I look forward to the avalanche of lawsuits that bankrupts Meta for all the harm that Facebook has done to the current generation of young adults. Social media can't die fast enough.
It's not just AI and ragebait (Score:1)
What? (Score:2)
Wait, people actually feel a need to maintain a presence on social media? Why?
Toxic environments (Score:2)
Social Media has become a toxic wasteland.
A wasteland where many hold the mistaken belief that anyone else cares what
their opinions are.
It's toxic.
It's fake.
It's a waste of time.
It exists not to bring you and your friends and family together.
It exists to data-mine the living shit out of everyone who interacts with it.
It's a data harvesting tool designed to be as addictive as possible while also being
as subtle as possible while doing it.
If you closed out / deleted all of your Social Media accounts, you might
been there, done that (Score:2)
I joined FB shortly after it started just to keep in touch with a few folk... I don't recall how long I hung on but it probably wasn't much more than six months before I killed my account on FB... so I joined the crowd of people quitting FB more than 20 years ago.
But then I don't post all that much to the few sites, like this one (& ars technica or gocomics), where I do occasionally post. I never even thought to join twitter or any of the other plethora of "social media" sites. I spend too much time
Math is hard (Score:2)
So, how was the sample chosen? Is that 55% of people who said they used to post? Or everyone who rarely posted in the first place? What about new posters who were not even around when that group was posting. ARGH. And remember, it's not a fact, it's what people now want to SAY about their habits, considering the media coverage about internet addiction. ARGH AGAIN.
Goodbye, Faceschnook, it's not me, it's you. (Score:1)
I dropped Facebook several years ago (2022) when their "community standards" moderators went all douchy/Trumpy on me and I've never looked back. Best move I've ever made in my life for my own mental health. And any projects I take on in the future will explicitly avoid/deny/lock-out Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other big social media just because I don't see any value there anymore, for anyone. The collective "we" burned that village down to the ground. Oh well. Moving on.
Lots of Tribal Crap (Score:2)
I'm seeing more and more "my tribe is red hot; you're tribe is doodly squat" posts. Like, "You can't be a Christian if you're [some group that fundamentalists can't tolerate]" or Trump fans vs Trump haters or flerfers vs globers. Lately I've been seeing posts consisting of memes depicting burly blue-collar laborers extolling the virtues of capitalism or father figures sitting at the dinner table slicing a steak with a cigarette hanging from his lip, while adoring family members gaze at him as he talks about