On Instagram, users share content more readily via direct messages than on their news feed. — AFP Relaxnews
Internet users are posting less on social networks. According to one study, almost three in ten Americans say they've been posting less on their favourite social network over the past year. And even young people are becoming more selective, posting less personal content.
Are Internet users becoming more discerning when it comes to social media? According to a study conducted by Morning Consult, one third of the Americans surveyed say they've become more selective about what they post on social networks over the past year.
This trend is particularly pronounced among Generation Z (35%) and Millennials (37%), but Baby Boomers and Gen X have become more selective too, with around 30% saying they have been more picky about their online posts over the past year.
To counter this trend, many platforms have been stepping up their offers to better monetise content and thus encourage users to post content online. Instagram, meanwhile, has developed an option for posting content to a private feed.
But the decline in social networking posts could become a thorn in the side of major brands. And its effects could be felt as far away as Hollywood.
According to the Morning Consult study, consumers are more likely to recommend a movie or TV show they like to someone in person rather than to post about in on social media. Only 13% of Gen Z and Gen X respondents say they’re most likely to post content about their activities, such as watching a TV show or movie, compared with 20% of Millennials and just 6% of Baby Boomers. In the UK, Reddit can be seen as an exception to this trend, as 44% of Brits have already been to the cinema thanks to recommendations found on the platform.
Internet users are far more inclined to share content about key moments in their lives (17%), as well as about their travels (14%). Conversely, content relating to political events (6%) or sports (6%), as well as personal events (9%), do not inspire internet users to post. Even more worryingly for the entertainment industry, only 2% of Americans surveyed post about major pop-culture events.
“An increasingly popular way to boost a title’s reach on social media is to just upload an entire episode or movie to a social platform [...]. With this strategy, a title can get boosted in a social platform’s algorithm by consumers who like a post even if they rarely post themselves,” the report explains.
In early October, Paramount Pictures decided to make the Mean Girls movie available in its entirety and free of charge on its TikTok account to coincide with “Mean Girls Day”. The following day, the movie, divided into several parts, was no longer available on the Chinese social network. – AFP Relaxnews
*Study carried out on a sample of 2,125 Americans with at least one social networking account, on September 23 and 24, 2023.
