Locked-Down Users Reaching Limits on Social Media Amid Coronavirus

Social-media usage is blowing up, but will it crash when real-life invitations start flooding back in? Just as one might temporarily sour on someone after spending too much time together—a roommate or perhaps your spouse in quarantine—social-media users can tire of swipes, likes and unsettling news. Usage levels soared across social-media platforms in the first quarter, though ad dollars dropped sharply in some cases amid the pandemic. But the advance word out of China is that familiarity can breed contempt. An article in the December edition of Computers in Human Behavior on Chinese social app WeChat found factors like lack of privacy, furthered by neuroticism and “presenteeism,” or the tendency to feel pressure to be constantly present, contributed to “social media fatigue.” Users logging some 12 to 16 daily hours of screen time are seemingly trying to outdo one another on Twitter for the largest average times, which Apple dutifully reports to iPhone users weekly. The unsettling reality is leading some social-media users to consider a break. Social-media companies had better hope their users don’t go on a social vacation just as their advertisers return to work.