Is Social Media Dying?

[JoelR]

The social media boom of the last decade is over. It’s not that people are no longer using social media — they are. They’re just using it less, and engaging differently."

"In 2022, the average daily time spent on social media declined globally leading to a drop in organic reach for brands and creators.

Per GWI, 54% of people use social media to connect with friends and family, and 27% of people use social media to keep up with news. What they aren’t necessarily hopping on social media to do is be sold to. However, social media platforms need users to spend as much time on their apps as possible and to continue buying from advertisers in order to remain profitable.

In other words, social media users want to socialize and social media platforms want to sell, leading to a misalignment between a product and its customer base.

Here are some key insights we’re seeing with the current state of social media." 

• Users prefer to share with close friends
• Sales fatigue is on the rise
• Possibility of going ad-free

Inspired by Hubspot

[Jay]

People don't like ads for sure.  In that case, on my forums I'd like to set up a classifieds page to make money.   Well, I just don't want to push something unwanted.

[Maria]

I don't think social media is dying, in fact, I see more people embracing social media platforms for personal as well as professional communications. I also see the rise in social commerce. It is true that you can see the drop in the number of active users on some social sites but that is not the result of people ditching social media, in fact, they are ditching one social site for the other. People who can pay will surely use ad-free version but there are a lot of people who enjoy free platforms and they tolerate ads as long as the service is completely free.

[Toni]

I wouldn't go as far as to say social media is dying but I do feel the novelty has worn off when it comes to social media and many do not use it like they used to when it was new.

I still use social media but it is definitely not as much as I used to say 10 years ago now. 

[Shortie]

Social media may have seen a decline in how many use it but I would not say that it is dying it is the complete opposite as I see more turn to social media nowadays for help, support and even socializing. 

Social media will continue to be the more dominant on the internet mainly for the reason that it is easily accessible and they can stay in contact with friends and family all whilst staying up to date with the latest news or even discussions with groups such as we see on Facebook. 

 

[Destiny]

Many may be getting tired of social media but I would not say that it means social media is dying, it just means that some people feel they need to take a break from social media either for mental health reasons or even because they feel they spend too much time on social media. 

It would take a lot for social media to start to die. 

[JoelR]

Forums just won't die either 😄

I personally think there's a generational shift going on, where the millennials that grew up on Facebook and Twitter are phasing out, and Gen Z is all about TikTok.  

With that said, I think you really need to know your audience.  Your audience may be gamers, which is more Discord and Twitch.  Your audience may be technology journalists, which may be more Substack.  There are a lot of secondary platforms that have millions of users.  

[Dilip]

Social media has too many slaves. They cannot live without it in one form or another.

This decade is more about messenger apps. If you look at the idea, people want to spend less time adding content or receiving response for their posts. Conventional social media like FB is slower for today's generation. They prefer Telegram and the likes where the scope of instant communication is intense.

[JoelR]

I do believe that instant communication is key for online communities and group discussions, and wish forums would do a better job at capturing the essence of 'live' conversations.