For years, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) investors have obsessed over one question: Are users leaving Facebook and Instagram? A new survey by Incogni suggests Wall Street may be watching the wrong metric.
Users aren’t disappearing in large numbers—they’re simply becoming quieter. And if fewer people are creating the photos, videos and conversations that power Meta’s platforms, the company’s next growth challenge may not be attracting users but keeping them actively contributing.
Users Are Logging In—But Sharing Less
According to the survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by privacy company Incogni, 55% of respondents said they post less on social media than they did five years ago, while 53% have become more selective about who can see their posts. More than half also said maintaining an online presence now feels like work, with that figure climbing to 60% among Gen Z respondents.
The findings point to a shift that’s more subtle than users deleting their accounts but could prove just as important over time. Meta’s advertising business depends not only on billions of users logging in, but also on a constant stream of fresh content that keeps people engaged and gives its recommendation algorithms something new to surface.
Why User Silence Matters to Meta
That shift helps explain why Meta has poured tens of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence. AI is increasingly being used to recommend content, summarize information, generate creative tools and improve discovery across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. If users share less, AI has to work harder to keep feeds engaging.
The survey also sheds light on why participation may be slowing. Nearly half of respondents (47%) said they had deleted a social media or messaging app because of stress or anxiety. Political content and polarization made 44% say they wanted to withdraw from social media, while 51% said growing privacy or security risks could eventually push them to delete their accounts.
Importantly, the report does not suggest people are abandoning social media altogether. Instead, it describes a behavioral change: users are sharing less, limiting their audiences and becoming more cautious about what they post.
Wall Street May Need a New Metric
For investors, that’s an important distinction. Daily active users and monthly active users remain among the most closely watched metrics each quarter, but those figures don’t capture how much original content people create once they’re on the platform.
If digital fatigue continues to reduce participation, Meta’s next challenge may not be adding more users—it may be finding new ways to fill increasingly quieter feeds while keeping engagement and advertising growth intact. In that scenario, user silence could become a more meaningful metric than user loss.
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