Posting Zero – Why Gen Z Stopped Posting on Social Media

More and more people are adopting a “Posting Zero” strategy. Why are young people avoiding social media and choosing not to post anymore? And what does that mean for your social media strategy?

I watched this video the other day called “Why nobody is posting anymore?” and honestly… I’ve felt the shift for months. My Instagram feed is still loud, packed with content, but no one’s actually talking anything relevant, engaging or posting personal content anymore. Yes, people are still logging in, but many choose to be silent, scrolling, but not sharing content.

And it’s not just my feeling. I now have the data to prove that something has changed.

Social media activity peaked around 2021–2022, and since then, usage has been declining on all platforms, especially among younger people (gen Z).
Some reports even suggest a ~10% global decline.
People are spending less time on social media in 2025 vs 2023.
There’s an increase in the number of fake accounts and bots.

But if you’ve been online long enough, you could see this coming years ago.

Gen Z actually started quitting social media as early as 2018.

There was a study back then showing that 41% of them wanted to leave social media entirely because it was causing anxiety, sadness or depression.

That number probably looks tiny now compared to how people feel in 2025.

What killed social media posting?

Honestly, it’s a mix of everything.

Political factors, income insecurity, AI and chatbots, and more.
I’d say we all reached a collective burnout from the internet so we’re on a break.

Here’s what I think actually happened:

First: the ads

I remember a few years ago I would post my breakfast photos, and comments would say: “that looks so yum” or “where did you get that croissant?” That felt like a small, but personal conversation.

Now most small post gets elbowed out by loud ads, branded content, and fake accounts.

At the same time, social media platforms have started getting greedy, rolling more ads slots… Just open TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. Every second post is a promo or an influencer tagging something for sale.

It doesn’t feel social anymore.

Your morning walk or #OOTD photo can’t compete with the advertising machinery of brands. So naturally, people stopped posting their daily life because nobody wants to spend time creating original content when it gets drowned by ads.

Second: fear and guilt

People used to fear missing out (FOMO).

Now they fear getting judged for what they post on social media.

Before you hit the publish button, you need to run through a mental checklist:

is this offensive to anyone?
will someone misinterpret this?
will it be screenshot and weaponized against me later?
will my employer see this?
what if I get cancelled?
what if I get banned?

People worry of what happens after posting, or worse … they prepare follow-up apologies. This can cause anxiety and fear in over 41% of young people – and as we know from the gen Z study. So it’s a real problem.

Kyle Chayka’s New Yorker piece nails this feeling:”we used to post casually; now posting leaves you raw and anxious”. So silence is safer.

Third: shopping posts

More posts are aiming to sell than connect or engage in conversations. Back in the the day, we used the 80:20 rule, where 80% of content was for your audience (eg: informative, educational or personal posts), and 20% was promotional content.

Now it’s fully reversed. The shoppable posts have replaced genuine content.

Open TikTok. You will see people live streaming 24/7 and talking about sponsored products and affiliates and nothing else.

Open Instagram, every influencer post has a tagged item you can buy.

This has now spread to YouTube (both shorts and long videos) open up a shopping section.

Everything has a price tag so it doesn’t feel like you’re walking to a room to meet your friends friends and socialize. More like you’re stepping on a mine field of ads, hidden agendas, scammers, fake reviews and clickbait.

Its just a place most people would like to avoid.

Fourth: the world is in crisis

Every time you open social media, you can see news of a new war front, famine, natural disasters, riots, shootings, and economic insecurity. It’s a dreadful time to be alive.

Your photo sipping a margarita by the pool, next to footage of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza just feels tone deaf and insensitive.

So people avoid loading new posts into their scheduling tools.

Not because they don’t have anything good or nice to share, but because they feel it’s not a good time, so they prefer keeping things private.

Fifth: TikTok changed the rules.

TikTok shifted the rules of social media content entirely. Suddenly, everything you post had to be:

Entertaining + Educational + Aesthetic + Funny + Viral.

The pressure for creators is insane. You have to be a robot (or use AI tools) to execute this strategy perfectly.

Relatable, human, imperfect posts just don’t have the viral factor, and don’t “count” anymore.

Now combine this with the “experts” (TikTok doctors, trainers, motivators, healers, gurus), who started turning everything into a big show.

“Doctors” dancing on camera while giving medical advice,
19 year olf life coaches selling you 3 hacks to get rich fast
Beauty gurus selling you a new lipstick every 5 seconds.

All this is overwhelming. Since when did everyone become an expert? People claimed to be what they’re not just to get a few views.

Many of them got exposed, like Saddia Khan, the “psychologist” who didn’t actually have any qualifications but advertised and charged for premium consultations via TikTok.

Families pushed their children to make videos. Some influencers even used kid actors and pretended they were they’re own (eg: the Billionaire daughter).

Not to mention everyone was a “Millionaire” and “Billionaire” on TikTok when in fact they were just acting.

All this act squeezed out the genuine, human, everyday posting we used to enjoy.

Fifth: The internet doesn’t feel human anymore – because it isn’t

The reality is that there are an overwhelming number of fake accounts, engagement farms, AI influencers, and bots everywhere. And social platforms not only know about it – they allow it and they earn from it!

Meta earns an estimated 10–20% of its ad revenue from bots and fake impressions.

Before leaving a comment, we now have to stop and think:

So who are we engaging with?
Is that brand account replying to you a human or a custom AI chatbot?
Is that comment section full of real people or bots engagement?

When you stop trusting the authenticity of the social media space in general, you naturally stop participating in fake engagements.

So yes, the social media bubble has finally burst.

I feel it. Gen Z feels it. Everyone feels it.

Why young people are choosing the “Posting Zero” strategy isn’t by accident; it’s intentional.

People used to post ordinary things, imperfect behind the scenes, that felt relatable and human.

But today? We hesitate.

Social media became too noisy. Too fake. Too chaotic. Too commercial. Too political. And too automated for us to even want to engage and post.

The reality is there’s no incentive to keep posting content anymore.

Why should we?

We don’t want to engage with AI and chatbots – we just want real people, imperfect posts, bad lighting and human content on social platforms.

References & Supporting Studies:

Studio Scribis