Social Media is Dead (And We Just Use It To Scroll Now): let’s talk about the internet. It has never felt louder and busier. Ads, reels, AI slop, viral videos. It’s like a constant digital screaming match and that seems to have put off the people who make the internet because they are going quiet.
“According to a recent study by The Print, global social media activity is on the decline. The research, which included a robust sample size of over 250,000 participants across 50 countries, found a 10% drop in social media usage. Interestingly, this shift is largely driven by young people who are actively turning away from their screens. This emerging trend has been coined ‘Posting Zero,’ reflecting the reality that individuals are choosing to stop sharing their personal lives on social media platforms.”
And here’s why it’s happening. The study has given three reasons. First, the polished nature of social media. When these platforms first came, they weren’t so curated. They were breakfast photos, pet photos, gym selfies, random life updates that no one really asked for. It was chaotic, but it was also human. It was messy, but apparently that was the point of it.
But look at your feed now. It looks like a shopping mall designed by an AI bot. Every scroll shows you a skincare ad, a reel that you’ve already seen 11 times, a guy explaining how to make your first million by the age of 24, and an AI model who is definitely not real. Slowly, the real people disappeared.
In fact, there’s an actual word for what happened is Enshittification. What it means is this. Platforms start great, then they drown you in ads, then they squeeze everyone dry for profit, and then the whole thing collapses into digital garbage. That’s the first reason.
The second reason is perception and guilt. A lot of people have not stopped using social media. They’ve just stopped participating. So, they scroll, they lurk, they watch like anonymous ghosts behind a one-way glass. But they don’t post because they’re not sure how they will be perceived. One wrong move and it leaves a mark. Also, no matter what anyone posts, their friends can often not see it. So, what’s the point of it anyway? Nobody wants to be a part-time influencer for free. Plus, the world is too heavy for selfies. It seems every week there’s a new crisis. Wars, floods, protests, tragedy. Posting a beach photo amid all of this feels wrong. Apparently, especially to the Gen Z. They see it as tonedeaf and insensitive. So they stop posting altogether.
The third reason is the dead internet theory. Now what does that mean? What’s the dead internet? It’s the idea that much of the internet is now just bots. By some estimates, automated traffic has overtaken human activity. It made up more than half of all internet traffic in 2024. We talking about your content mills, AI generated views, and fake accounts pumping out fake engagement. And I know what you’re thinking. Who is sitting and analyzing social media like it’s the GDP of a country, but such are the times we live in. We’ve reached a point where posting a picture is a fullblown sociological event and somehow everyone is part of it. Everyone has become a part-time cultural critic.
Imagine telling someone in 2009 that one day we would need global research studies to understand why people are not uploading. But here we are running worldwide surveys to figure out why humanity is tired of pressing post. But as funny and ironical as it is, the internet has never been louder and the people have never been quieter. These platforms were built for people to connect. But somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling human. So, can we ever go back? Maybe we can. If the platforms breathe between ads, if feeds start showing actual friends again, if posting feels human, not performative, if we remember the joy of sharing stupid little moments. Because the real internet, the fun internet, was not built by brands and bots. It was built by people.
