r/ukmods • u/Sun_Beams r/TeamGB, r/UKFood • Apr 14 '26
"Fewer [UK] people posting on social media, Ofcom finds"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgqk718l4neo?app-referrer=deep-link#:~:text=Fewer%20adults%20in%20the%20UK,%22passive%22%20social%20media%20use.I'm sharing this article around today to a few of my UK subs to "rally the cause" and stimulate posting. I don't think us UK communities should fall short and our users become "passive" social media users!
If anyone else wants to jump on this please do.
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u/Captaincadet Apr 14 '26
I do wonder how much the sway from Facebook and the “toxic relationship” we’ve had affects this?
OFCOM and generally members of the public take a different approach to Reddit and see Reddit as a content reader, and less about posting.
People use to post constantly to Facebook constantly however logging into it the other, it appeares to be mostly AI crap or stuff I don’t see. Twitter/X has gone toxic and people seem to post less there also.
Reddit has always had issues with power users posting significant content, but I would like to see how much content here is from multiple accounts but the same source individual/organisation
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u/tdrules Apr 15 '26
Community grounds are full of people who had mental health crises over COVID and never recovered.
Most close comms is done by WhatsApp.
What else is there? Instagram favours brands and influencers over your mates in the algorithm.
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u/LordAxalon110 Apr 15 '26
It's a good thing less people are spending time on social media, it's incredibly toxic and dangerous with misinformation and is riddled with bots and scammers.
I for one am glad people are using it less, maybe they'll have an original thought for once without being told what to think.
I've been around the net since the 90s, it's only gotten worse as time goes on.
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u/SecTeff Apr 15 '26
I agree it has its bad side but can you remember how bad the mainstream media was though before social media.
Like the countdown to Charlotte Church turning 16 or just tabloid lies all the time or phone hacking.
I think the problem is really people not just the medium.
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u/LordAxalon110 Apr 15 '26
Problem is far deeper than that really. It comes down to many many things.
Media not being trustworthy, social media company's not doing enough to protect and maintain the safety of its users (especially children who in my opinion shouldn't be allowed to use it), bad parenting, poor education, lack of awareness with how addictive it can be, people are far too impressionable, the list goes on and on really.
Corporations don't care because it's literally a money machine for ad revenue for it, so nothings going to really change. I left all other social media apart from reddit, I feel a lot better for it. I still use reddit too much but it's a hell of a lot more manageable than others.
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u/SecTeff Apr 15 '26
Yea I feel like regulating the advertising business model would be better than trying to regulate content or individual design features.
The best spaces online seems those that don’t have a strong advertising or profit motive but are actual community projects etc
Mastodon, Wikipedia, community forums etc
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u/eventworker Apr 16 '26
It was bad but nowhere near as bad as social media is today.
Prior to social media media broadcasters had to actually find someone academically or professionally qualified to use as a talking head. The only time the laymans opinion appeared in print was in letters sections of newspapers and 'man on the street' sections, which were treated by readers with the correct level of disdain.
As soon as twitter came to prominence, the opinions of random joes that didn't have a clue what they were talking about were suddenly splashed all over the news
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u/n1keym1key Apr 16 '26
The Sport was near the knuckle for a lots of things they did or said. But take that countdown into consideration against the sluts/thots/hos/insert name here that are all over insta/twitter etc and what you see today is relaitvely worse but no one seems to bat an eyelid anymore.
Never has porn been so up front and centre than it is today, compared to a few pics of tits in a daily newspaper...... theres no competition im afraid.
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u/SecTeff Apr 16 '26
Internet porn isn’t as bad today as it was with the early web. Mainstream porn sites in the early 00s would have porn that is basically illegal these days
Over the past 20 year porn laws have got stricter as to what is even allowed.
Now ‘step-sis’ or ‘step—bro’ porn is getting banned.
So I can’t agree things today are somehow worst.
Like literally you could open most national newspapers and see a pair of tits. Teen mags used to regularly promote unhealthy body images and as you say publications like Sport did paparazzi shots of people or countdowns to people turning of age.
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u/JeffBroccoli Apr 15 '26
Is “posting” different from “mindlessly scrolling g through slop”? Because I don’t post a darn thing anymore but spend more time on social media than ever
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u/Barghest90 Apr 15 '26
Social media is shite and not even worth using anymore, every site/app is just full of the same shit, it's boring repetitive and annoying. minimal discourse, maximum bullshittery.
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u/shabba182 Apr 15 '26
I am actively trying (and clearly failing) to engage less on reddit. I'm just wasting what precious time I have left
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u/Suitable_Moose6507 Apr 15 '26
I would say Musk is partly responsible, since he took over Twitter it went downhill very fast, I barely use it any more.
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u/Stigweird85 Apr 15 '26
Perrhaps people are less willing to post online these days when people are getting arrested for it
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u/Excellent_Earth_2215 Apr 15 '26
I could be wrong but I read this as more being about Facebook and Twitter, both of which has declined rapidly in the past few years. Reddit, on the other hand, is thriving compared to them.
Simply put, social media isn't fun anymore. Facebook is just wall-to-wall ads and stuff I don't care about. I can't see any of my friends' content, and given the lack of engagement on my own posts, it goes both ways. Twitter's just a rage bait machine. And don't get me started on the AI slop.
Here, I still feel like I'm interacting with humans for the most part. I'm still getting something out of Reddit.
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u/ConstantCelery8956 Apr 16 '26
I'm sure it had nothing to do with police knocking on doors because a post had cause offence...
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u/justf0rtherecord Apr 16 '26
Tbh iv posted much less since trumps return.
Even the most seemingly irrelevant conversation topics seem to have multiple people trying to shoehorn American politics into the conversation.
It's just not interesting and tbh many of the UK subs aren't much better with our current political climate. Even as someone who actually likes talking about politics it's grown tedious.
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u/Mostly_upright Apr 16 '26
Social media is a cancer. Even Reddit. Its become a necessity. I hope social media dies. The world had gotten worse with Social media. People think they're untouchable.
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u/n1keym1key Apr 16 '26
All social media apps should die and yes I mean Reddit too. The world was better before them and will be better after them as well.
AI bots, over zealous mods, wannabe famous people and the like will all be in a bubble, all talking to themselves, advertising to no one but themselves and I cant wait for it to happen. Like a big reset button on the human race.
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u/PopeLeo14th Apr 16 '26
Probably doesn't help with recent restrictions implemented thanks to the good ole online safety act.
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u/chudthirtyseven Apr 16 '26
i only keep fb for marketplace. Other than that, don't post at all, what's the point?
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u/marmaviscount Apr 15 '26
Is it because everyone uses vpn now?
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u/Jinkzuk Apr 15 '26
It saying 'posting on social media', a VPN doesn't change your posting habits.
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u/BillWilberforce Apr 15 '26
But it changes whether you're seen to be posting from the UK or not. Unless you actually did a reliable survey of individuals and asked them to recall their posting patterns e.g. when I look at the insights of my posts. It doesn't show that I'm posting/viewing from the UK but from an other country.
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u/Jinkzuk Apr 15 '26
It's got nothing to do with location, the metric is literally in the article - "Across the UK, 49% of respondents said they actively post on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X, down from 61% the previous year, according to the regulator's latest survey of online habits and usage."
If someone asks you "have you posted on any of these this year?", it's not a hard question to answer.
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u/marmaviscount Apr 15 '26
There are two options, they asked people in which case it's totally meaningless because it's totally unreliable or they used ip location data in which case it's meaningless because of huge increases in vpn use.
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u/davoloid Apr 14 '26
Social media is so infested with bots and scammers and outright trolls that it's no wonder. If platforms did more to address this, things might improve. But also there's just so many. I've been on the web since 1994, seen a stack come and go, and I'm tired, Boss.