Why did our friends stop posting on social media?

[Onthemoooove]

I've noticed over the last year or so that my Facebook feed has changed dramatically - most friends now post rarely, if ever, and my feed is mostly full of ads, "full story in comments" articles, and AI crap. In turn, I've dramatically cut down how much I post. I now post around once a month and, a few years ago it was several times a week! The only thing useful about it is a couple of groups I'm in. Can't comment on Instagram & Twitter as I've never really used them and the likes of Tik Tok & Snapchat are alien to me (I'm old!). I then stumbled across this article which seems to sum it up perfectly.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20250722-social-media-user-changes-kyle-chayka-katty-kay-interview

And would Temu and Shein ever just fuck off?

I will never order a thing from either. Ramming them down my feed is just pointless. No matter how often I try to get rid, they're back.

This thread is making me think about the whole gig tbh. I cba with social media...I don't have accounts on any other unless you include WhatsApp. I used to like watching tiktok but it's full of AI and adverts and clickbait as well.

Facebook is like mudlarking. Sifting through the gack hoping to find something interesting or valuable.
I have given up posting in all but a nominal way. I think it's dead on its arse for me.

Don't know how the youngsters feel.

I had a YouTube channel with almost 100k subscribers and similar on Instagram.

I walked away last year because it was utterly toxic. My channel was not controversial, just me talking about my experience with something and documenting it. Really light stuff.

However the comments were vile. When it started to keep me up at night I knew I had to stop. I just stopped posting and deleted everything.

@PegDope
That is really interesting. I'm sorry it became so dark for you when it shouldn't have been. Must have been very anxiety-inducing.

Why does it need to be dirty? I use it as a diary of nice stuff I’ve done- walks and swims, that kind of thing.

@pictoosh it was.

Imagine the worst things you think about yourself and some you never thought of being written about you just because they can.

They took something that was a very enjoyable hobby and a lovely community vibe and utterly destroyed it.

There was something of a seismic change where Facebook and insta stopped being for catching up on how people are doing, sharing interesting things, organising get togethers, and became all about showing off, portraying a consumerist lifestyle, one up manship and in the case of insta simply a marketing tool to separate you from your money by means of subtly implying your life is a bit shit compared to this person who has that thing.

I think most people of a certain age cottoned onto that quite early and made their exit from the whole shitshow.

I'm think a lot of people are getting turned off social media because of online bullying. People will say the nastiest things to you that they wouldn't say to your face.

I remember a few years ago, somebody posted a photo taken from a car of a 'peloton' of club cyclists in front of them. Coincidentally the photo was taken outside my house. The OP was moaning about how inconsiderate cyclists were and how they had held them up for over a mile until they had been able to overtake. I replied saying that I lived on the road and that it was a downhill (which wasn't obvious in the photo) and that even I could reach 30mph (which was the speed limit) on my shopping bicycle and the usual moan about club cyclists was that they were breaking the speed limit. I got an absolute tirade of abuse, for example "all cyclists should be knocked down like bowling pins". The trouble with this type of behaviour I is that when people see this sort of thing often enough, they act on it. I did actually have a car swerve towards me and swerve away at the last moment. I later found out that this car was notorious among long cycling groups for doing this.

I post very occasional photos if I go to a concert or something, maybe 3 or 4 times a year. I also share posts about stuff I’m involved in like sports/volunteering but most of the time I’m just one person in a group photo. Just looked at my profile and 95% of it is community group posts I’ve shared about lost pets, I like it when there’s an update to say the cat/dog is home safe!

I used to put lots of photos of family etc but stopped years ago, it just seems like over sharing now.

Attitudes have changed and people have come to realise how destructive social media can be

also more people are questioning what they want to put out online as nothing is really private and what is done with the information we do post

ds scoffs at Facebook it’s for old people apparently

I deleted mine, I’ve rarely ever used it what a faff they don’t let you go easily I’m guessing many people are deleting their accounts

@PegDope
Do you know...a few years ago I got to 'following' a hillwalker who documented her walks online. She was lovely, relatable, I liked her craic.
One day, lo and behold I met her on a hill. I said, "Hello, you're the Wee Wanderer." She said she was and stopped to chat. I said I liked her photos and thought she wrote well.
She told me she'd actually just had to ditch the lot after being abused and stalked...and the toll it had taken on her. I could only imagine how frightening that must have been.

I've never had any online presence but have been targeted in another exposed setting. My anxiety went through the roof and my self-esteem took an absolute battering. I'm still recovering.

I hope that your experience is long behind you now and you have been able to restore yourself.
People are fucking awful.

We've just grown up I think. I got my first social media page (excluding friends reunited!) at 25 and was all over Facebook when it got big but I'm now 45 and it just has no appeal now. I do use instagram but more to follow artists, crafters, creators, cooking channels etc.

Hardly anyone I know posts on FB any more, and I only use it for a particular closed craft group. For family and a few very close friends it’s WhatsApp. I’ve never done Instagram or TikTok, and from all I’ve ever heard, it doesn’t sound as if I’m missing anything.

It seems like no one my age or younger posts on it anymore, so I don’t either. Occasionally I share an instagram post to Facebook as well, but that’s really only for older relatives. I’m 35, and would say the only regular posters on my feed are at least a decade or so older than me. People my age or younger are using instagram or TikTok. Even then, it’s mostly stories (on instagram) not posts.

When I look at my feed, it’s entirely Groups and adverts. If I go on my friends’ profiles, they’ve usually posted once or twice this year and anything else is being tagged by (again, much older) relatives or friends.

Facebook ain’t it anymore. It’s Insta and TikTok.

Most people realise its rubbish

It’s a combination:

Algorithms are now optimised for ads and click bait which makes Facebook in particular an absolute sewer. I don’t want endless shit ads targeted at what people think I must be interested in because of my demographic: mainly endless stuff about the menopause and why cortisol is ruining my life.

Also just wider awareness of the damage that social media can do to people’s mental health, social interactions and the massive drain on energy and time it represents.

I don’t think social media is universally negative and I sometimes miss seeing nice stuff from friends. But I do increasingly resent the amount of time it has sucked from my life and the effect it has on public discourse.

I haven’t totally stopped using it because it’s a useful way of keeping in touch with people I otherwise wouldn’t speak to. But I post far far less: maybe once every couple of months. I think most people are weaning themselves off it to some degree.

They probably are still posting. Just the algorithm.

click on the feeds button in the toolbar at the bottom of the app and then choose the friends feed. Or else go to your menu and then feeds and choose friends.

I was finding I was getting just a stream of ads, groups I wasn’t in and nothing from my friends.

I realised I was happier staying away from it, though it's useful for local info.

i share both facebook and instagram, but just photos generally.

I post regularly, and so do a lot of my friends. I've always found Facebook and Instagram very useful 🤷 I don't use any others.

It isn't that they have grown up but Facebook is so full of ads now that it doesn't seem worth it anymore to post.

Yes, I agree. My feed is full of ads, random groups I might like (most recently an AirBnB superhost group 🤷‍♀️) and news paper click bait head lines but if I go and actually click on their profiles there’s loads of posts I’ve missed.

Facebook is dead, it’s just awful now. I don’t use it anymore either! I do use Instagram, and connect with friends very frequently on there. But that’s all I have these days!

I’m still on there for certain groups and local news/traffic.
I find there are some people who post exactly they always have. But I know a few who post just to show off about things, none of the content is ‘real’ just - look at where I am, look at what I’ve spent money on. I’ve muted them.

The only people I still see posting regularly are those who like drama, “sat in a&e with this one…” just so they can get “are you ok hun” comments.
I have them all blocked mind!

I post the odd important thing (to me) u did so recently and felt so much love back which was nice. But otherwise I’m just there for the groups and local info here days.