The Great Log-Off

For the first time ever, social media usage has actually gone down. Yes, down — as in, people voluntarily spending less time doomscrolling. According to Statista, the daily time spent on social networking by internet users climbed steadily from 2012 all the way to 2023, with the biggest jumps happening between 2015 and 2018. Then… the graph wobbled. A little dip in 2024. Another in 2025.

Now we’re back to 2018 levels — which might not sound like much, but in internet years, that’s roughly equivalent to reversing climate change.

Social networking still dominates online life, of course, but clearly, something is shifting. Some say it’s because people would rather talk to ChatGPT than Chad from accounting. Others say it’s because “social media” has stopped being social and started being an endless parade of algorithmic sludge and sponcon. Whatever the reason, it’s worth asking:

If the crowd is logging off, what happens to crowdsourcing?

Let’s take a closer (and only mildly judgmental) look at what’s driving this decline.

1. The “Enshittification” of Platforms (a.k.a. The TikTok Slop Factory Problem)

Remember when social media was about keeping up with friends, sharing pictures, and posting cryptic song lyrics when you were sad? Now it’s just ads, rage-bait, and content so random it feels like your phone is hallucinating.

• Algorithmic chaos: You used to see your friends’ posts. Now you see an AI-curated feed of strangers arguing about pickles.

• Ad overload: Every fourth post is sponsored, and every fifth is “suggested.” You’re basically scrolling through a digital infomercial.

• The death of organic reach: Want anyone to see your post? That’ll be $10, please.

At this point, calling it “social” media feels a bit like calling a slot machine “interactive finance.”

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2. The Rise of AI Companions

Why post into the void when you can have a conversation with an LLM that actually listens, never interrupts, and doesn’t post MLM pitches in your DMs?

• From broadcast to dialogue: Talking to an AI feels more personal than yelling into a crowded timeline.

• Judgment-free zone: You can ask “Is it normal to name your sourdough starter Steve?” without fear of ridicule.

• Instant synthesis: Instead of reading 50 Reddit comments that all start with “Well actually…,” you can get a coherent answer in seconds.

It’s not antisocial — it’s efficiently social-adjacent.

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3. Digital Burnout Is Real

After a decade of being chronically online, people are collectively saying, “You know what? Maybe outside isn’t that bad.”

• Mental health matters: Everyone’s finally admitting that social media isn’t great for anxiety, attention, or self-esteem.

• Toxic fatigue: Outrage is exhausting.

• Main character syndrome burnout: The constant pressure to perform your life for others? It’s giving existential crisis.

Logging off is starting to look less like rebellion and more like self-care.

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4. The Great Fragmentation

Social media isn’t dying — it’s splintering. The big public squares are emptying, but the side streets are buzzing.

• Real conversations now happen in private group chats and niche Discord servers.

• Communities are smaller, more focused, and — mercifully — ad-free.

We’re not less social. We’re just more selectively social.

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So, What Does This Mean for Crowdsourcing?

Here’s where it gets interesting — and a little bittersweet.

The Bad News: It’s Getting Harder

Crowdsourcing depends on, well, crowds. And those are getting thinner and more distracted.

1. The informed crowd is shrinking. The experts and enthusiasts who used to hang out in public forums are migrating to smaller, private spaces. The hive mind is fracturing.

2. Attention spans are toast. Complex problems don’t fit neatly into a 15-second clip. Try explaining quantum computing in the style of a TikTok dance challenge.

3. Trust is broken. Why contribute your brainpower to a platform that buries your work under a pile of ads and might delete your data next quarter?

4. Fragmentation kills scale. Instead of one big collective brain (like early Reddit or Stack Overflow), we now have a thousand mini-brains arguing in parallel universes.

In short: it’s hard to crowdsource when the crowd’s gone home.

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The Good News: It’s Getting Smarter

But all is not lost! The decline of mainstream social media might actually be good for serious collaboration.

1. Purpose-built platforms are thriving.

   • GitHub for code.

   • Foldit for citizen science.

   • Kialo for debate.

   • Stack Exchange for Q&A.
     These spaces have no patience for dance trends or outrage algorithms — and that’s precisely why they work.

2. AI can turbocharge collaboration.

   • Synthesizing thousands of human inputs into coherent summaries.

   • Auto-moderating and keeping discussions civil (finally).

   • Lowering the barrier for newcomers so they can contribute faster.

3. Smaller, better crowds.
   As the casual scrollers drift away, the remaining communities might be smaller — but they’re far more motivated, focused, and collaborative.

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The Bottom Line

The golden era of using social media as a giant crowdsourcing machine — when a good idea could ripple across Twitter or Facebook overnight — is fading fast. The big platforms are too noisy, too toxic, and too busy selling us things we don’t need.

But the human drive to connect, share, and solve problems together isn’t going anywhere. It’s just… relocating. The future of crowdsourcing isn’t on social media — it’s in specialized, intentional, and AI-augmented spaces where collaboration is the point, not the byproduct.

The crowd isn’t gone. It’s just being more selective about where it hangs out — and honestly, can you blame it?

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REFERENCES

Global daily social media usage 2025| Statista

Social Media use is going down : r/singularity

Daily time spent on social networking by internet users

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