Why young people are ditching social media

Account manager Matt Richards, 23, deleted all his social media apps from his phone last year, and was surprised to find that his life changed for the better.

Richards had been using a smartphone since he was 11 years old and grew up with the device like most Gen Z and millennials. However, in the past few years, he noticed social media didn’t feel as fun anymore with artificial-intelligence slop dominating his feed, influencers advertising brands, and constant lifestyle comparison.

“I think people back then used to take a break from the real world by going on their phone, but now people are taking a break from their phone to spend time in the real world,” Richards told CNBC Make It in an interview.

As many of his Gen Z friends also caught on, he noticed instant benefits, from connecting with people in real life to feeling more confident about himself.

Going chronically offline is the latest trend to grip young people, and ironically it’s going viral on social media. There’s been an surge in TikTok videos of people vowing to delete social media apps in 2026 and engaging with in-person and analog hobbies.

When I discovered the trend, I decided to make a post on LinkedIn to see if there were any young people willing to speak to me about going offline. To my surprise, I received nearly 100 responses from Gen Z and millennials sharing stories about social media detoxes and digital burnout.

They talked about ditching their smartphones for flip phones, visiting record stores to buy vinyl, taking up analog hobbies like knitting, and most importantly, connecting with their friends in person.

A 2025 Deloitte consumer trends survey of more than 4,000 Brits found that nearly a quarter of all consumers had deleted a social media app in the previous 12 months, rising to nearly a third for Gen Zers.

Meanwhile, social media use has steadily declined, with time spent on the platforms peaking in 2022, an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries by the Financial Times and digital audience insights firm GWI found.

Globally, adults 16 and over spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms by the end of 2024, down almost 10% since 2022, with the decline being particularly pronounced amongst teens and 20-something-year-olds.

Jason Dorsey, President of the Center for Generational Kinetics, said that the increased “nastiness and divisiveness” online, including from leaders and politicians, is driving young people away from social media as they seek out greater control of their lives.

“We’re seeing that a group of Gen Z [and millennials] is choosing to leave social media entirely, and probably a larger group that’s choosing just to limit social media as they sort of regain more of what they’re trying to find: balance and security and safety in their life,” Dorsey said in a conversation with CNBC…