Why Gen Z is choosing to stay online but stop posting on social media altogether

Twenty-five years ago, the world was in the grip of the millennium bug — people of a certain vintage may recall the Y2K (2000) bug, a dreaded coding glitch that threatened to disrupt computer systems and the Internet across the world. That tech hurdle passed, Internet usage grew across the globe, albeit at varying speeds, and live messaging gained popularity. From the frisson of finding connections online via community websites like Geocities to blogging and sending each other ‘scraps’ on Orkut, to a rising social media fatigue, the ride has been nothing short of exhilarating. Today, the newest trend on social media, ironically, is ‘posting zero’. 

The term doesn’t mean deleting social media accounts or going off the Internet, but choosing not to share. While continuing to stay on the platforms, many users have completely stopped sharing life updates or pictures on their grids. 

At first, it may seem like yet another ephemeral trend that has caught the fancy of a generation born and brought up in a connected world. However, a recent study conducted by a digital audience insights firm for the Financial Times shows that time spent on social media has seen a 10 per cent decline, ever since 2022. The biggest declines were among young people, according to the study, which covered 2,50,000 people across 50 countries. 

Optimised for endless scrolling

So, why are young people not posting anymore? In her book, ‘Never Logged out’, writer Ria Chopra discusses how the early digital experiences felt “oddly grounding compared to today’s internet” for someone like her, born in 1999. She points to how the Internet she grew up with, “wasn’t optimised to keep you scrolling indefinitely; it was optimised for you to leave it once your purpose was fulfilled.”

Today, with the proliferation of what is now called ‘AI slop’, a stream of low and mid-quality content on social media platforms, the incentive is to consume mindlessly, never get out of the platform, and stay in a loop of perpetual daze.

From the early Internet era, when Time magazine anointed ‘You’ as the ‘Person of the Year’ in 2006, to when the same magazine has recently announced that the ‘Person of the Year’ goes to ‘Architects of AI’, there has been a seismic shift in the way we engage on social media.

When ‘You’ was controversially made person of the year in 2006, the magazine argued thus (excerpted): “Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight, I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana?... The answer is, you do.” The magazine says ‘You’ needs recognition for “seizing the reins of the global media, for sounding and framing the new digital democracy,” among other things.

Today, this has been completely turned on its head. ‘Architects of AI’ have been recognised for “delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible.”

Lasting cognitive decline?

Whether AI will wow or worry is debatable, but some early signs are concerning. For instance, a new study from the University of Texas and Purdue University says that large language models  (LLMs), when exposed to short and viral social media posts, experience “lasting cognitive decline.”

If this is happening to LLMs, what about human beings? This fear of cognitive decline, in addition to increased anxiety, is what is triggering a pushback from social media users, and youngsters, in particular. 

Delhi-based Ishaan Kapur, 25, who has been active on social media for more than a decade, says that only a couple of years ago, “we’d post pictures that were highly edited with filters, followed by long captions, with the overall intent of self-expression.” Now filters are gone, pictures, extremely rare, are authentic, and there’s an aversion to posting for many reasons, including privacy, and AI-Deepfakes. “Suddenly, privacy became cool — people who post rarely have come to be seen as more real and less boastful,” he says. 

The ones who have quit

Anantha Narayan, founder of a problem-solving company based in Chennai, describes himself as “what Gen Z calls a boomer.” While noting that Gen Z posting has indeed dropped, he says that’s because they hate to be “judged.” Akanksha Srivastava (mid-20s), a Delhi-based company secretary, agrees. “Even ordinary opinions can be judged or taken out of context. On top of that, constant scrolling creates a kind of mental fog, especially for us Gen Z, who are already juggling career pressures and information overload,” she adds. 

Akanksha says that her close friend has been following the ‘posting zero’ lifestyle since 2022. “No updates, no posts, but I’ve never felt disconnected from her,” she adds. “My brother also quit posting and now uses social platforms only for learning or professional growth, which only told me that social media should add value, and not drain it,” Akanksha explains.

For Gen Z, the spaces to go to now are platforms where sharing conversations and not posting for social validation matter. And hence, for this generation, spaces like Discord, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Reddit are preferable, observes Anantha.

Inchara Bharadwaj (19), Bengaluru-based engineering student, agrees. While she does have social media accounts, she never posts because of privacy concerns. Then, there’s also the fear of cyber stalking, she adds. The same goes for her friends — even when some of them post, it is only to document their art or interests, never personal stuff, Inchara adds. Her thoughts find an echo in Akanksha’s words. “Privacy is becoming valuable again,” the company secretary says. 

“Gen Z prefers space over stage,” says Anantha. He says this actually harks back to the early social media era of Yahoo Chat and Orkut, where conversations actually led to connections. The 19-year-old engineering student also says that Discord is a platform she and her peers use for conversations and communication. 

Need for authenticity

As Ishaan explains, “what started with self-expression and sharing with friends has turned into ‘keeping up with everybody’. There’s a massive pressure on presenting an image on social media that’s fun, artistic and trendy. I feel that when that pressure began to cross a threshold, people decided that it’s better to not post than post in an inauthentic manner.” Even though they are present on social media, observing and interacting, they are increasingly private — this need for authenticity has driven them to move to “private accounts” with “close friends” so they can be themselves, he adds. Ishaan continues to be active on Instagram, posting stories — “not of myself but what I am seeing — places, cafes, etc.”

More creators, but where’s the spark?

A reason social media posts have started to feel inauthentic is also that the platforms prefer creator posts. There are an estimated 50 million creators generating content for five billion social media users worldwide, according to insights from Deloitte. Authenticity and spontaneity can be hard to find in overwhelmingly curated spaces, where creators are jostling for attention. 

Author Cory Doctorow, known for his coinage, ‘enshittifcation’, which describes the “decay of online platforms”, writes in his book on the same term, “If you’re old enough to remember the early excitement about the coming digital age, you’ll recall how enthusiastic about the prospect of disintermediation — that is, cutting out the middlemen.” He points out that today, the very platforms seem to be dialling down on “quantum of content from the people you choose to follow” and instead focus on boosted content and ads.

“Feeds are crowded with highly curated lives, ads, and strangers — and fewer updates from people we actually know,” observes Akanksha. “I’ve already started posting less. I used to share more often, but now I post only when something genuinely meaningful happens. I even took a detox without uninstalling anything because I wanted to break the habit consciously. Surprisingly, it improved my focus and productivity. Silence online started feeling like clarity, not absence,” she adds.

The need for authenticity is what Anantha highlights in his post on X, where he calls for a “zero likes movement.” Anantha writes, “If social media is a noisy marketplace where everyone’s shouting to be heard, what happens when you whisper? Or better yet, when you speak in a language only a few people understand? The Zero Likes approach isn’t about creating bad content. It’s about creating content so niche, so deliberately unmarketable, so refreshingly honest that it repels the algorithm like garlic repels vampires.” He adds: “The beauty lies in the liberation: no trending hashtags to chase, influencer aesthetics to mimic, no comment sections to moderate.”

No wonder then that Gen Z is finding ways to be their true selves, steering clear of “the tyranny of the metric”, as Anantha puts it. And thus, posting zero. 

Does a ban work?

In a first, Australia has recently banned teenagers under-16 from social media, announcing that the time had come to “take back control” from tech giants. The Australian government has noted that such measures were needed to protect children from “predatory algorithms” pushing violence and cyberbullying. A November 2025 study that came out in JAMA Network Open has found that reducing social media consumption even for one week can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia among young adults.

Analog bags, anyone?

If you are wondering what analog bags are, they are now, ironically, a TikTok trend that focuses on offline interests and hobbies. An analog bag is just a fancy term for what most of us have always relied on — a good old tote bag. It could have journals, books, knitting needles or paint brushes to name a few, to encourage you to stay away from digital devices, and instead develop interests and hobbies away from the phone and the Internet. While it seems like just another social media trend for engagement initially, it may be symbolic of a trend that’s emerging — a gradual return to at least some aspects of the ‘analog’ way of life.