Recent headlines have been asking “Is social media finally dying?” or even asserting that “Social media is dying” or is in its “last days” or is already “dead.” Less dramatically, some merely suggest that social media use peaked some time ago and will likely continue its downward spiral.

This is not the first time the death knells have sounded. Way back in 2009, for example, when Facebook was one-tenth its current size, a New York Times Magazine article titled “Facebook Exodus” reported that disillusioned and previously loyal users were quitting the platform. In the same month of November 2022, The Atlantic magazine first announced that “The Age of Social Media Is Ending,” and then two weeks later came out with “Instagram Is Over,” alerting readers to the platform’s “fading fortunes” if not quite “the end of the app.”

If exaggerated earlier, the claims of death this time around may be different. So what is the evidence?

Some eager obituarists base their confident predictions on declining user numbers. At least in the United States, however, self-reports of media usage don’t appear to bear this out. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that while the share of adult Americans using the most popular apps, YouTube and Facebook, has “remained relatively stable in recent years,” four others—TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reddit—have grown in overall use. Only Snapchat and X have recorded a recent (and relatively modest) decline. About half of adults visit YouTube and Facebook daily, with young adults being the most tuned in overall, especially to YouTube and TikTok.1

Other heralds of decline base their predictions on user discontent with the changing character of the platforms. Even while acknowledging that folks are still habitually consuming social media content, some prognosticators argue that users are posting far less and a growing number have grown weary of all the ads, celebrities,

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