If scrolling feels more exhausting than entertaining, you’re not alone. I feel the same way, and a recent study backs up the sentiment: Social media is losing its fun factor.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Neil J. Rubenking, Edited By\u00a0Alan Henry<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll admit it\u2014I’m a boomer. And I still use social media the way many people originally imagined it: as a way to stay connected. My feeds have always been a mix of far-flung relatives, old friends, and high school band chums (because, let\u2019s be honest, band buddies are the best buddies). Most days, I carve out a little time after work to catch up with the people who matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But somewhere along the way, that simple ritual changed. The algorithms started filling my feed with so much irrelevant content<\/a>, sponsored posts, and suggested videos that the updates from actual friends were getting buried. I eventually developed a workaround: I’d hold my hand over the screen, covering everything except the name of the person or group that posted. If it wasn’t from a real human connection, I kept scrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, I left almost all my groups behind, keeping only the ones tied to genuine relationships. And as it turns out, I may have been ahead of a much bigger shift. A new study from Incogni<\/a> suggests that millions of Americans are rethinking how they use social media\u2014and many are choosing to post less, share less, and step back from the noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incogni is a personal data removal<\/a> service that spun off from the well-regarded Surfshark VPN<\/a> in 2022. The Incogni app<\/a>, a PCMag Editors\u2019 Choice winner, scans hundreds of people-search websites and personal data aggregators and automates the process of opting your data out of their collections. It\u2019s a never-ending battle, since the brokers constantly scrape publicly available information from the web to build more profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media provides a major source<\/a> of raw data<\/a> for these aggregators. If you broadcast your thoughts on X\/Twitter, send your Instagram reels out for the world to love, or leave your Facebook profile open to public view, you\u2019re handing the brokers a delicious sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord of personal information<\/a>. It\u2019s only natural that Incogni\u2019s researchers would take an interest in this ongoing leakage of personal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While anyone in the world can be the victim of personal data harvesting by brokers and aggregators, Americans are by far the most affected<\/a>. According to Incogni, Canada and the Netherlands rank second and third, but America, with millions of netizens and few data protection controls, ranks first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That being the case, it\u2019s not surprising that Incogni turned to the US market for this survey. It used a statistically balanced sample of 1,000 Americans, dividing the results into four groups: Boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1980), Gen Y (1981-1996), and Gen Z (1997-2012). The respondent pool was also balanced geographically, and the study took place from June 1 through 9, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mentioned earlier that I like to check my socials after work. The last thing I\u2019d want is for doing so to be…just more work. And yet, more than half of respondents agreed with the statement \u201cMaintaining an online presence feels like work,\u201d with about a third of those checking the \u201cstrongly agree\u201d box. Only 16% disagreed, with the rest remaining neutral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For some influencers and aspiring influencers, maintaining a social presence truly is<\/em> their work. But that\u2019s not me, nor (probably) you. If it feels like work rather than fun, you\u2019re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the chart shows, there\u2019s also a clear correlation with age. A full 60% of Gen Z respondents feel the pain of maintaining a social presence. Perhaps they have a niggling hope that they might still be discovered as an influencer? Those of us in the Boomer category are clearly more relaxed about it, with just 38% saying that maintaining a social presence feels like work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The survey quizzed respondents about how they feel when they don\u2019t<\/em> keep up with checking their socials and, by extension, how they\u2019d feel if they just plain quit. They were given choices, both positive (peace, relaxation, and relief) and negative (anxiety, fear of missing out, and discomfort).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, positive reactions held slightly greater sway, with an average of about 21% compared with 19% for negative reactions. The Gen Y contingent accentuated that split, with 25% positive and 21% negative, while Gen X went even further, with 20% positive and just 13% negative. But the Gen Z group flipped the results, identifying 27% negative and 26% positive reactions to going without social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s another force pushing folks away from the socials: increasing politicization. Of the survey\u2019s respondents, 44% agreed that political content is driving people away from social media, and only 20% disagreed. Among Gen Z respondents, the impetus was stronger: 48% agreed, and just 13% disagreed. These negative feelings associated with politics only serve to highlight the positive reactions to deleting your social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you posting less on social media than you did five years ago, and are you being more selective about who can see what you post? Then you\u2019re with the majority. More than half of the respondents answered yes to each of those questions. But would you ever parlay fewer posts into no<\/em> posts (aka quit posting entirely)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked what it would take to finally get them to terminate a social media account, a die-hard group of one in six respondents said there\u2019s nothing that could make them quit. But more than half could picture quitting due to security concerns, and almost half accepted the possibility that harassment or hate speech could send them packing. Others cited the amount of time wasted on scrolling through social media and the mental health threats of doomscrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full study (which you can read here<\/a>) concludes that there\u2019s been a significant shift in public attitudes toward social media. Where it was once fun and relaxing, it\u2019s now growing dark and angsty. But you can buck the trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can absolutely use social media as much as you want: Just make sure it\u2019s a fun and positive experience. If it feels like a grind, or if you get anxious or unhappy, look at your habits and make some changes. Cut out toxic connections. Focus on your actual friends. While you\u2019re at it, enlist the help of an antivirus<\/a> or security suite<\/a> that includes help for detecting scams<\/a> on your social media. Or, if you feel so inspired, put social media aside entirely and go take a walk in nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I find social media tedious, as it’s dominated by too many overly emotional far left liberals with too much free time on their hands. And there are too many organizations, including our military and intelligence agencies, operating teams to push talking points and propaganda… It’s just not worth wading through all the bad information and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18001,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994\/revisions\/18001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-21-1024x576.png\")
Why Incogni Took a Closer Look at Social Media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWho Took the Survey?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSocial Media Feels More Like Work Than Fun<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-22.png\")
\n\n\n\nWhy People Want to Quit\u2014But Don’t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-23.png\")
\n\n\n\nWhat Would Finally Make You Delete Your Account?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-26.png\")