Social media has long ceased to be a place where people simply share moments from their lives and communicate with friends. Over the past two decades, it has transformed into a complex ecosystem built around business, advertising, and algorithms designed to capture users' attention at any cost. We see fewer posts from people we know and more of an endless feed of viral content selected to evoke strong emotions: irritation, fear, anger, or envy. Gradually, the sense of comfort and belonging is replaced by fatigue and anxiety.
Users increasingly find themselves spending much more time on social media than they intended, without deriving much satisfaction. Algorithms create closed information bubbles, deepen polarization, and the rise of AI only accelerates the spread of disinformation. Platforms have become arenas of conflict and manipulation, while the original idea of an open and democratic digital space is fading into the past.
Although studies do not provide a clear-cut answer about the harmful effects of social media on mental health, more and more people report a negative impact on their emotional well-being — especially those prone to anxiety, low self-esteem, or social comparison. As a result, an increasing number of users are consciously limiting their presence online or leaving digital spaces altogether. This may not be the end of social media as a phenomenon, but it is certainly the end of its previous era.
Modern social media began to take shape in the early 2000s. It was during this time that the familiar format emerged: user profiles, friend lists, posts, comments, and private messaging. These features allowed people to share their experiences, communicate with others, and find like-minded individuals — attracting a massive audience. However, by the end of the decade, the owners of social platforms increasingly prioritized business interests. As a result, users’ attention and personal data became valuable commercial assets.
"Social media is built on an advertising-based revenue model, so its main goal is to keep users' attention for as long as possible. To do that, it shows content designed to hook and engage. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the content is actually useful," explains Philip Verduyn, associate professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University, who has been studying the impact of social media on people for over a decade.
Today, social platforms track nearly every action a user takes — from their location to their browsing history. At the same time, platforms are increasingly copying features from one another: algorithmic feeds, stories, short videos, and now AI-powered tools. All of this is aimed less at enhancing communication and more at capturing attention. Posts from friends might be scrolled past in a matter of minutes, while an endless stream of memes and funny videos from strangers can keep users engaged for hours.
More and more users are beginning to feel that their personal profiles no longer belong to them, and the familiar sense of comfort online has disappeared. Posts are becoming fewer — partly because the audience on social media has gradually split into those who create content and those who simply consume it.
Faith in social media as a democratic space where everyone’s voice can be heard is also fading. Algorithms create closed information bubbles that are difficult to escape. At the same time, the development of artificial intelligence makes it easier to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories. As a result, social media is seeing increasing levels of aggression, hostility, political polarization, and endless — often meaningless — arguments.
An original Facebook advertisement encouraging people to join groups in order to find like-minded individuals and share common interests, hobbies, and goals.
Street art mocking Facebook’s advertising campaign, its targeted ad principles, and the way the platform encourages grouping people by political views, amplifies negative emotions, and ultimately profits from it.
The first poster hints that Facebook often fuels outrage and polarization in "liberal" communities, since emotional responses increase user engagement and time spent on the platform.
The second poster points out that the ultimate goal of such algorithms is to monetize users by boosting metrics for advertisers.
The third poster plays on the idea that "conservative" groups often become hubs for fake news and disinformation, which Facebook’s algorithms tend to promote.
"Few people realize that polarization is part of Facebook’s business model. It’s profitable. Content isn’t shown randomly — it’s selected specifically to appeal to you. In reality, corporations aim to show you exactly what will trigger strong emotions — because that’s good for their bottom line. Anger, fear, irritation — all of that works perfectly for Facebook’s business," said Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, in an interview with NBC News.
Social networks have long been criticized for provoking FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) — the anxiety of missing something important — and for fostering behaviors similar to gambling addiction. They are also linked to depression and a general decline in emotional well-being. While there are many scientific studies that support these claims, there is still no clear consensus on whether social media definitively harms mental health.
"We’ve observed that negative effects tend to appear more often in people who already struggle with low self-esteem, depression, or a tendency to compare themselves to others in a negative way. However, social media itself isn’t necessarily harmful," — notes Philippe Verduyn.
Nevertheless, users are increasingly experiencing social media fatigue — a trend confirmed by various polls and studies. Headlines about the "death" of social media or claims that its era is coming to an end are appearing more frequently in the media. Still, there’s no single explanation — each platform has its own unique problems and weaknesses.
Facebook: intrusive algorithms, useless AI content, and moderation chaos
The world’s largest social network, with an audience of three billion active users per month, has existed for over two decades. Almost from the very beginning, Facebook has curated its news feed using an algorithm that selects posts based on what it thinks will be most interesting to a particular user.
Facebook was also the first platform to introduce the "Like" button, aiming to better understand what kind of content resonates with users. Over time, the platform began adding not only posts from friends but also content that the algorithm believed might interest the user. As a result, data from the first quarter of 2024 shows that only 18.7% of Facebook feed content came from friends, while 31% consisted of posts from accounts the user wasn’t even following.
Due to Facebook’s enormous scale, Meta struggles to effectively moderate the platform. The network is overwhelmed with fake accounts — in fact, 1.3 billion fake profiles were removed in just the last quarter of 2020.
Another issue related to Facebook’s weak moderation is the surge of content generated by AI. These posts are often boosted by bot activity, which misleads the algorithm into treating them as popular and promoting them to a wider audience. The creators of this "junk" content profit from ads, link clicks, and various scams.
Facebook spreads fake news faster than most other online platforms, in part because many users rely on it as a convenient news source. Meanwhile, Meta still seems to lack a clear strategy for combating disinformation. In 2016, the company launched a fact-checking program, but in early 2025, it announced its shutdown — effectively equating fact-checking with censorship.
Original Facebook ad claiming that the social network is actively working to identify fake news and fight its spread.
A satirical protest poster mocking the company’s policy on fake news. The original slogan "Fake news is not our friend" is supplemented with the phrase "it’s a great revenue source", suggesting that Facebook profits (through advertising and user attention) from the spread of disinformation and sensational content.
Instagram: an endless feed of envy and depression, trying to become the new TikTok
Instagram, used by around two billion people each month, is also owned by Meta. Many of its problems mirror those of Facebook. However, this platform has a unique feature: researchers note that Instagram actively exploits people’s natural desire to appear better than they really are, pushing them to create an idealized version of their life.
As a result, some users spend a lot of time editing vacation photos—cropping, retouching, applying filters—only to feel disappointed when they get just ten likes. Others, looking at flawless images from other people, begin to think their own life is boring and meaningless. According to Philipp Verduyn, these reactions are most common in people with high anxiety, fear of failure, negative thinking, depression, or low self-esteem.
After Meta acquired Instagram in 2012 and introduced algorithm-driven feeds, the situation only worsened. Posts from friends and people users actually follow have virtually disappeared from view. They’ve been replaced by viral content—staged, glossy photos of celebrities that only intensify social comparison and make users feel "less than."
In recent years, trying to compete with TikTok, Instagram has increasingly shifted its focus from photos to videos. After launching the Reels format in 2020, the platform even tested a full-screen vertical feed, mimicking the Chinese app’s style. However, the change sparked a wave of user backlash, forcing Instagram to roll back the update and return to a more familiar format.
Nevertheless, Meta has no plans to change Instagram’s overall direction. Recently, the platform abandoned its familiar square post grid — the one many users had carefully curated over the years. The layout is now rectangular, optimized for vertical video format. As a result, Instagram increasingly resembles a mix between a glossy magazine and a TikTok clone, losing its original feel as a personal photo album.
A major turning point in Instagram’s evolution came after the departure of its founder, Kevin Systrom. In his own words, the platform "lost its soul." "I think my biggest regret is how commercial Instagram has become... It shifted the focus to people who obviously live perfect lives — with no limits, trendy hobbies, flawless appearances, and the most stylish clothes," Systrom concluded.
X (Twitter): Endless Propaganda, Fake News Streams, and Chaos Under Elon Musk’s Leadership
X (formerly Twitter) has always remained a more niche platform with a unique format — short posts in a microblog style. As of April 2024, the network had 611 million monthly active users. For comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo alone has more followers on Instagram.
Twitter (now X) has long earned a reputation as one of the most toxic social networks. Bots play a significant role in this, often becoming the spark behind controversies: they spread fake news, conspiracy theories, and deliberately inflame sensitive and polarizing issues. These accounts actively post, repost each other, flood comment sections — until the last word appears to be theirs, creating the illusion of widespread support for certain views.
In 2022, Twitter was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk. He rebranded the platform as X, changed the familiar logo (which still puzzles many users), and laid off around 6,000–6,500 of the company’s 8,000 employees. Entire departments were cut — including the team responsible for combating fake news and misinformation.
Musk stated that X would no longer restrict freedom of speech, and under this policy, he reinstated thousands of accounts previously removed for toxicity, misinformation, hate speech, and incitement to violence. At the same time, the platform began blocking or limiting visibility of accounts belonging to journalists who criticized Musk himself, and even delayed link loading by five seconds for websites he openly condemned — including Facebook, Instagram, The New York Times, and Reuters.
After Musk took over, the amount of fake news on X didn’t decrease — on the contrary, the problem worsened. With the introduction of paid verification, users began buying blue checkmarks and impersonating celebrities, including Musk himself. In 2023, the European Commission stated that X had more disinformation than any other social network. Moreover, Musk himself occasionally shared fake posts — only to delete them later. Researchers who analyzed a million tweets that year described bot activity on the platform as the most intense and aggressive in the history of social media.
After acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk stopped publishing the platform’s revenue data, but it seems profit wasn’t the main motive behind the deal. For him, buying X became a way to strengthen his political influence by gaining control of a powerful communication channel — one that sometimes has more impact than traditional media. Musk envisions X as a future equivalent of China’s WeChat: a universal, all-in-one app combining messaging, online shopping, payments, and ride-hailing services.
Social media annoy, exhaust, and cause anxiety — yet we’re in no hurry to give them up: they’ve become an integral part of life
Social media remains the most widespread form of online activity. By early 2025, more than five billion people — over half the world’s population — were using social platforms. On average, users spent 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media in 2024. That’s eight minutes less than in 2023 and roughly matches 2018 levels, but such numbers hardly indicate the imminent “decline” of the social media era.
One of the main reasons people still aren’t ready to leave social media is that these platforms have become too deeply embedded in everyday life. Leaving a platform often feels like losing a vital connection to the world — to friends, family, colleagues, and interest-based communities. “There’s no strong reason for those already on Facebook to suddenly leave and rebuild all their social ties from scratch. You stay where your people are,” says Romain Badouard, a lecturer at the Panthéon-Assas University in France.
Some people use social media as a platform to run their business. Others value it for access to local news, the ability to quickly find useful contacts, or connect with like-minded people they might never meet in real life. “Facebook saved my family,” said 54-year-old Delphine in an interview with Le Monde. Thanks to the platform, she found a support group that helped her daughter overcome her fear of going to school.
Besides, even if someone wants to leave social media — it’s not clear where to go. X still has no true competitor: even Meta’s Threads failed to draw away its user base in any significant way. At the same time, Meta itself remains in a strong position. The company can either buy out a potential rival or simply copy its features and attract the same audience. That’s exactly what happened with Stories — originally a signature feature of Snapchat, but now strongly associated with Instagram.
Perhaps the only real alternative to social media today is messaging apps — primarily Telegram. There’s no algorithmic feed here, and Stories are only available for a fee, which makes the platform feel less intrusive. However, Telegram has plenty of its own issues: the amount of bots, fake news, and abusive messages is no less than in traditional social networks.
In any case, as long as large corporations continue profiting from user data and hold immense influence over public opinion, the core problems of social media will remain. They won’t disappear on their own — not with new features, and not with rebranding.
March 2025