Yes, Consumers Are Sharing Less. But They’re Still Using Social Media

12/14/23—Half of consumers will "significantly limit their interactions with social media by 2025," Gartner said this week.

Did this catch your eye? It sure caught mine.

Gartner attributed the shift to consumers' concern over things like misinformation, bots and "toxic user bases." It also flagged concern over AI's potential to damage user experience.

I agree that the factors Gartner mentioned can cause people to have a negative attitude toward social media.

I also generally agree with Gartner's assertion that that some people are less willing to share about themselves on social media than they used to be.

But attitudes don't always align with usage.

And sharing your own content isn't a requirement to be a social media user.

In the digital trust research I worked on when I was at Insider Intelligence, US social users routinely said lack of trust would affect their usage of social platforms, but we weren't able to align lowered trust to actual declines in usage.

Many people continue to use social platforms despite their concerns.