If your engagement numbers have felt a little softer this year, you're not imagining it. A new survey is putting hard numbers behind something a lot of social media managers have suspected for a while: people are pulling back from posting, and the platforms are quietly turning into something closer to TV than a town square.
A report from privacy company Incogni, based on a survey of 1,000 Americans, found that more than half of respondents are posting less than they were five years ago. According to Social Media Today, the data points to a broader shift in how people actually use these apps, moving away from public sharing and toward passive scrolling, entertainment, and short-form video. For anyone building a content strategy around audience participation, that shift changes the math.
Key Update
The Incogni survey found that 55% of people are posting less to social media now than they did five years ago. More than half of respondents also said that maintaining a social media presence "feels like work," which is a pretty blunt way of describing what a lot of creators and community managers already know: staying visible online has stopped being casual and started being a job, whether or not anyone's getting paid for it.
This isn't a brand-new phenomenon, either. It builds on data going back years showing that a small slice of users generates most of the content on any given platform. Pew Research found back in 2019 that roughly 80% of tweets came from just 10% of accounts on the platform then known as Twitter. And the "90-9-1 rule," a concept for online communities that The Guardian wrote about in 2006, holds that 90% of people on a platform will only ever consume content, 9% will occasionally engage, and just 1% actively create. Two decades later, that ratio looks like it's holding, and possibly getting more lopsided.
What's changed is the reason behind it. Respondents pointed to social posting burnout, pressure to perform for an audience, and the emotional toll of algorithm-driven, politically charged content as reasons they're stepping back from public posting. At the same time, private messaging and small group chats have become where a lot of that sharing has migrated instead, which tracks with a trend Social Media Today has flagged before around the broader move to DMs.
Why It Matters
None of this means people are logging off. Meta has reported that time spent on Facebook and Instagram has actually grown in recent years, largely because both apps keep inserting more short-form video into the feed. So the picture isn't "social media usage is dropping." It's "social media usage is changing shape." People are showing up to watch, not to post. That's a meaningful distinction for brands, because a strategy built around getting your audience to comment, share, or create user-generated content is now competing against a much smaller pool of people who are actually willing to do those things.
It also puts more pressure on the content itself. If most of your audience is there to be entertained rather than to participate, then posts built purely around asking followers to "tag a friend" or "share your thoughts below" are going to underperform relative to content designed simply to be watched, felt, or scrolled past and remembered. Passive consumption isn't a lesser form of engagement, but it does require a different kind of content, one that earns attention in the first three seconds rather than one that assumes people are ready to type a reply.
There's also a monetization angle worth flagging for anyone managing influencer or creator partnerships. Research from Influencer Marketing Hub has found that more than 48% of online creators make less than $15,000 a year from their content, and a 2015 TubeFilter analysis found that 95% of YouTube views were driven by just 5% of channels. The creator economy narrative often suggests that anyone can build an audience and get paid for it. The numbers say otherwise, and that gap between expectation and reality is likely part of what's driving the burnout Incogni's survey picked up on.
Important Takeaways
- 55% of people say they post less to social media than they did five years ago, according to the Incogni survey.
- More than half of respondents say keeping up a social media presence "feels like work," a clear signal of rising social media burnout.
- Historical data (Pew Research, 2019; The Guardian's 90-9-1 rule, 2006) shows this concentration of content creation among a small share of users isn't new, but it may be intensifying.
- Time spent on platforms like Facebook and Instagram is still rising, per Meta's own reporting, largely thanks to short-form video, meaning attention hasn't dropped even as active posting has.
- More sharing is happening in private DMs and small group chats instead of public feeds.
- Fewer than half of creators earn meaningful income online, which likely contributes to fatigue and reduced posting among aspiring creators.
Expert Analysis
Here's the thing that trips up a lot of brands when they see data like this: they read "people are posting less" and panic about their own content calendar, when the real signal is about audience behavior, not brand behavior. Brands should absolutely keep posting. What needs to change is the expectation for what a "successful" post looks like.
If your KPI dashboard is still weighted toward comments and shares as the primary markers of a healthy social media strategy, you're measuring against a shrinking behavior. Watch time, saves, and completion rate are becoming better proxies for whether content is actually landing, because those are the actions a passive, entertainment-seeking audience is still willing to take. Someone who won't comment will still watch a full 30-second video, and that's valuable signal you shouldn't be discounting just because it doesn't come with an @ mention.
The migration to private DMs and group chats is the part I'd pay closest attention to, honestly. It means some of your most engaged fans are still talking about your brand, your content, your product drops, just somewhere you can't see it and can't measure it. That's not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to build in mechanisms that surface that dark social activity, whether that's a referral program, a "share this with a friend" incentive, or simply asking directly in your content for people to forward it along. You're not going to win back public commenting behavior by asking harder for it. You're better off meeting people where they already are.
I'd also push back gently on treating every dip in posting frequency as burnout you need to fix. Some of it is healthy. People setting boundaries around how much of their life they perform online isn't a crisis for the industry, it's an audience getting a little more discerning. Brands that lean into low-pressure, easy-to-consume formats will do better with this audience than brands that keep demanding active participation from a group that's increasingly not interested in giving it.
Practical Tips
- Shift primary success metrics toward watch time, saves, and completion rate instead of comments and shares alone.
- Design content to work as passive entertainment first; treat any comments or shares as a bonus, not the baseline expectation.
- Build low-friction ways for fans to forward your content into DMs and group chats, since that's increasingly where sharing actually happens.
- Audit your creator and influencer partnerships with realistic expectations about their reach and output capacity, given how concentrated content creation is among a small percentage of active posters.
- Reduce the ask in your calls-to-action. Instead of "comment below," try prompts that only require a like, a save, or a watch-through.
- Keep investing in short-form video specifically, since it's the format driving increased time spent even as public posting activity declines.
Final Thoughts
Social media isn't dying and it isn't shrinking. It's just changing who's doing the talking. A smaller share of highly active users and creators is producing more of the content, while a much larger group is happy to watch, scroll, and occasionally forward something to a friend without ever hitting the comment button. For marketers, the smart move isn't fighting that shift, it's building a strategy that works with an audience that's there to be entertained, not recruited into performing alongside you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are people posting less on social media?
According to a recent Incogni survey, more than half of people are posting less than they did five years ago, citing reasons like burnout, the pressure of maintaining an online presence, and fatigue from politically charged, algorithm-driven content. Many are also shifting their sharing habits to private DMs and group chats instead of public feeds.
Does this mean overall social media usage is declining?
No. Meta has reported that time spent on Facebook and Instagram has actually increased in recent years, largely driven by more short-form video in the feed. People are spending just as much or more time on these platforms, they're simply consuming rather than posting.
What is the 90-9-1 rule in social media?
It's a longstanding concept, popularized by The Guardian in 2006, suggesting that on any given platform, about 90% of users only consume content, 9% engage occasionally, and just 1% are active creators. Recent data suggests this concentration may be holding steady or even increasing today.
How should brands adjust their social media strategy in response to this trend?
Brands should shift their success metrics toward passive engagement signals like watch time, saves, and completion rate rather than relying on comments and shares. Creating easy-to-consume, low-pressure content and building simple ways for people to forward posts into private chats can help brands stay relevant to an audience that's watching more and posting less.
Are influencers and creators affected by this shift too?
Yes. Research from Influencer Marketing Hub found that more than 48% of online creators earn less than $15,000 a year from their content, and content creation overall remains highly concentrated among a small percentage of active users. This imbalance between expectation and reality is likely contributing to burnout among aspiring creators.