Social media still looks social because it is full of people. But for many users, the experience has shifted from participating in a community to watching a stream of large accounts, creators and algorithmically selected personalities.
Ofcom’s 2026 research describes social-media use as increasingly passive and circumspect. In the United Kingdom, 89% of adult internet users still use at least one social platform, rising to 97% among 16–34-year-olds. Presence, however, does not necessarily mean participation. A person can spend hours inside a social network without speaking to anyone they know.
The structure of the feed encourages this transformation. It rewards content that can attract attention at scale, and makes creators, influencers and media accounts more visible than ordinary participants. A recent study of 1,015 creators, based on more than 829,000 posts, describes how algorithmically allocated exposure produces follower growth. People often follow an account not because they entered a mutual relationship, but because the platform repeatedly placed that account in front of them.
This creates a television-like model of social media. There are channels, personalities, recurring formats and audiences. The difference is that viewers can react, comment and share. Those gestures feel like interaction, but they often remain attached to the content of a large account rather than creating a relationship with another person.
This also explains why leaving social media can feel difficult. People are not necessarily giving up connection. They may be giving up a system in which connection is increasingly mediated by celebrity, popularity and recommendation. Their interactions with other people depend on what an influencer, creator or public account has first made visible.
The alternative is not to reject all digital communication. It is to recover a smaller idea of what a social space can be. A letter has no audience metrics and no algorithmic reach. It begins with one person addressing another, not with a broadcaster trying to hold a crowd.
One Reader starts from this difference. It does not ask users to produce content for an audience or keep up with a feed. It creates a situation in which one person writes to one person, and the value of the exchange depends on attention rather than scale.
The question is not whether social media is still social. It is what kind of sociality remains when most users have become spectators of other people’s visibility.
Sources: Ofcom’s 2026 research on passive social-media use; study of creator exposure and follower dynamics; A stranger, not an assistant.