I haven’t posted much recently mainly because I have been super busy on other projects and the heat in the UK has meant sitting in my studio working really hasn’t been a priority either, but during the downtime I continue to see that social media usage, especially in my age group (50+) has declined massively again. Now I have to say a lot of that is people just getting older, retiring or stopping work, and a shift in priorities – but even so the decline has been massive. Throw in the spate of AI generated rubbish (we’ve all seen it, and a million times too), more restrictive community standards, and well, it seems like the decline is accelerating. Now a lot of this is also to do with changing platforms (Tik Tok still doing well though it is repetitive as hell) changing times and tastes, and well getting old sucks. A lack of money in general also doesn’t help – I know plenty of people cutting back on social media use to save cash for other things like streaming tv as that is getting an expensive game. We also went and saw a movie recently (F1 movie for those interested) and that was a chastening experience that cost a fortune, one kidney left to see another movie this year, maybe! The reports say social media usage is still increasing, but I personally don’t see it at all, again probably because of my age and peers and the fact that FB was so massive before and that has fallen from grace in many ways – I mean it’s not about keeping in touch any longer for me and a lot of people…
Most people I speak to are just fed up of the lack of engagement, lack of quality both in posts and the platforms, and just a malaise in general. Now a lot of that is to do with the fact that most of the people I used to connect with have changed totally, and if I was younger I’d probably see a whole load more of things. Age is a barrier to these things after all. But with most of the clients I work with saying the golden age has passed, and how it is way too commercial with ads everywhere and people wanting cash left right and centre, I feel this is the issue we have got to address. Social media isn’t the easy and free thing it once was. There might not be a financial cost to posting all the time on FB for example, but you know damn well your own data will be splashed around to the highest bidders over and over again, and that you exposure to fraud and data hoarding will be massive. Gone are the days of you posting about your toilet habits and getting a healthy debate about them… that just doesn’t happen! The numbers are also way down with most not bothering any longer to comment or anything – doomscrolling is a way of life for many.
A lot of clients also say that increasingly poor returns on social media in terms of the time needed to be spent on it to achieve anything and also the financial costs are hitting hard. Many now use AI a lot, and well it shows. You can see that AI has decreased quality and many now just avoid AI generated stuff as much as they can. The perceived quality drop in content is also cited as why many just spend less time on social media too. Emerging markets and younger people also have different tastes and social media has shifted towards that as well – it’s a fickle world out there!
So for me and a lot of my clients, that “golden age” of social media has gone for them. Newer, younger people are coming in, but of course they aren’t my peers and I don’t work with them that much to see what has changed or what is happening as much. Remember there are loads more 16-24 year olds than 50+ in the world nowadays, and many countries have a much younger age range than we do here in the UK. The established social media platforms are struggling to compete in many ways…. I mean outside of social media I am seeing people shunning old standard websites almost totally…
