Why 55% of Americans Stopped Posting On Social Media
6 103A 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.
6 comments
It's bots and ragebait, thats why (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Tyr07 ( 8900565 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:14PM (#66236314)
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.
Social Media Uses have become negative (Score: 5, Insightful)
by forrie ( 695122 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:19PM (#66236330)
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.
It's AI and "the algorithm" (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Nkwe ( 604125 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:21PM (#66236334)
For me social media used to be a way that I could keep up with what my family, friends, and peers were doing. I saw what they posted and they saw what I posted. Now feeds are overrun with stuff I don't care about (the algorithm) and stuff that isn't real (AI), so it is becoming less and less worth my time to post stuff (my intended audience won't see it, and is also leaving the platforms) and likewise I don't see stuff my peers post. On top of this there is all the political crap and advertising.
Re:It's AI and "the algorithm" (Score: 5, Interesting)
by kjdrtgxf ( 1821390 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:50PM (#66236394)
I came to say the first half. It used to be so easy to see MY family and MY friends updates. Now even finding those posts would be impossible amongst the deluge of click bait, so both the urge to post and the reason to stay has departed those platforms. For a long time I did not engage on political comments there so it was not on the feed. That has changed. Overall I view instagram facebook etc the same as YouTube, Netflix, AppleTV; a place where I can go see commercial efforts to entertain me.
MPAR (Score: 5, Insightful)
by 0123456 ( 636235 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:35PM (#66236366)
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.
joined fb for the people, chased away by corp (Score: 5, Interesting)
by flipk ( 1187739 ) on Monday July 13, 2026 @12:40PM (#66236374)
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.