PSA: Your Gran Misses Your Instagram Posts

One-third of users say they’re posting less than they did a year ago

Last week, my gran asked why I never post on Instagram anymore. It’s a fair question. She downloaded the app specifically to keep up with what I’m doing in my life. Instead, my profile mostly shows photos from several years ago and the occasional holiday.

The irony isn’t lost on me. As a media buyer, I spend my days helping brands appear in people’s feeds. Yet, on a personal level, I feel increasingly fed up with scrolling through those exact same feeds.

It’s no secret that social media has become saturated, not just with ads but with influencer content, sponsored posts and a growing wave of AI-generated material. Part of this shift can be traced to the moment platforms moved away from chronological feeds toward algorithms that “suggest” content with brute force. The resulting feeds blur the line between authenticity and commerce almost beyond recognition. Often, it feels less like catching up with people and more like browsing an endless shopping channel.

I’m not the only one feeling that shift. Research shows roughly one-third of social media users are posting less than they did a year ago, with many logging on primarily to be entertained rather than contribute themselves.

Yet people aren’t abandoning social media entirely. The average person still spends more than two hours a day on social platforms. We’re still scrolling. We’re just sharing less.

I’m definitely guilty of it. When I was younger, I shared everything. I grew up in the golden age of Facebook albums, the era of uploading 384 photos from a friend’s birthday party, most of them blury, half of them duplicates and none of them remotely curated. Social media was chaotic, overshared and gloriously unserious.

Somewhere along the way, that changed.

Posting now can feel weirdly performative. You’re not just sharing with friends. You’re posting into a feed that sits between sponsored skincare, an influencer promoting protein powder and an AI-generated travel reel. So people hesitate. They overthink. Often, they just don’t post at all.

The discourse around social media losing its way is nothing new. Everyone from your best friend to government officials have opinions on why the platforms are ruining society. But the reality is that if we abandon posting altogether, we’re the ones who lose out.

We don’t have to accept the fate of a feed filled entirely with carefully disguised adverts and AI slop. We can reclaim social for its original purpose: connection. A place to stay in touch with friends and family, to document our lives and look back on moments that might otherwise disappear.

Yes, the ads and sales-heavy noise will still be there. That’s the trade-off. But it doesn’t mean the rest of the experience has to lose its meaning.
This plea is for brands too.

Over the past few years, brands have started adapting their creative strategies. Highly polished ads are being replaced with UGC-style content, lo-fi videos and formats that feel more native to the platforms. But the reason that content works isn’t just aesthetic, it’s cultural. People respond to it because it feels closer to the kind of content social media was originally built around: real people sharing real experiences. If platforms are going to remain meaningful places for audiences, that human layer has to exist.

So post more. Reclaim your feed with pictures of your average dinner or selfies at the gym. React to content from friends and brands alike when they resonate with you.

And if you won’t post for yourself, then do it for your gran.