Social Media Fatigue Rises: Users Seek Intimate Platforms as Major Networks Struggle to Maintain Engagement in 2025 cover art

Social Media Fatigue Rises: Users Seek Intimate Platforms as Major Networks Struggle to Maintain Engagement in 2025

Social Media Fatigue Rises: Users Seek Intimate Platforms as Major Networks Struggle to Maintain Engagement in 2025

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 Social media used to feel like the town square of the internet. In 2025, many people describe something closer to a breakdown: a system that still captures attention and ad dollars, but is losing trust, joy, and even time spent on it. The Financial Times’ data columnist John Burn-Murdoch, cited by WARC, notes that global time on social peaked in 2022 and has fallen about 10% since, especially among younger users, even as the number of accounts keeps rising. According to Cloudflare’s 2025 internet traffic review, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat still dominate global attention, but their growth now looks more like shifting chairs on a crowded deck than a thriving new frontier.

Cloudflare reports that Instagram overtook TikTok this year as the number two social platform by traffic, while X, formerly Twitter, slid out of the global top twenty services altogether. At the same time, TechCrunch reports that Snapchat is quietly thriving beneath the headline drama, with users logging nearly 1.7 billion minutes of calls per day and sending more group chat messages than ever. These pockets of intimacy point to a deeper truth: many people are retreating from the big, performative feed into smaller, more private spaces.

Yet the business side is booming. The Media Leader notes that social and other digital channels now account for more than four-fifths of UK ad spend, and that Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet are on track to control 58% of global ad revenue outside China next year. Meta has relaxed moderation standards, even announcing it will “catch less bad stuff,” while TikTok has reportedly cut trust-and-safety roles, raising questions about what exactly is filling those feeds. At the same time, AI search and chatbots are siphoning attention away from traditional posts and links, with publishers reporting traffic drops of 40% or more when AI overviews appear above search results.

For listeners, this breakdown feels like a paradox: more content than ever, but less signal; more ways to connect, but less genuine connection. The platforms are bigger, richer, and noisier. The people using them are quietly pulling back, seeking smaller circles, better controls, and, increasingly, alternatives.

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