Most of us use social media daily but it wouldn't take much to give it up
Bottom Line: Social media has been blamed for just about every ill in our society. From fake news, to cyber bulling and online fights that carry over into the physical world you can find a myriad of negative examples of outcomes related to various social platforms. Despite those negatives it's something that most Americans do daily. Pew Research has a plethora of new research that paints an evolving picture of social media in our lives that actually shows that despite the amount of time and/or frequency we use it. We're really not that into it.
Here's what they found:
Majorities of all generations use at least one social media platform
YouTube (73%) and Facebook (68%) are the top two (Instagram 35%) is third
59% of all social media users say it'd be easy to give it up
Only adults between 18-24 said by a 51-49 margin it'd be hard to give up social media. I totally get it but it's interesting that something that's so commonly used by most Americans is something that's not important to well over half of the people using it. Research has shown that the average person feels worse after accessing social media (most commonly Facebook), so it's not entirely surprising but it might be instructive. If you really aren't happy with using social media, it might be more constructive not to. Most are thinking what you're thinking. They just continue to go back to that well as you do. This topic is fascinating because it's the first one I've ever seen show that most Americans regularly participate in something they really aren't that into. This would seem to suggest that social media as it's currently used will likely change significantly soon. Remember when AOL was THE name in internet service, Netscape was the leading browser and Yahoo dominated search? Don't be surprised if some of the biggest brands in social today become marginalized in a similar way in the future.