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The future of social media: 3 predictions for 2025 & beyond
From hyper-personalized algorithms to smart data investing, a few predictions for the next generation of social media networks
Right now, we’re at a critical turning point in the history of social media, with several of the biggest players in the game facing major disruptions and upheavals that may take the industry in a whole new direction.
What will this new direction look like? And what will this mean for the billions of users who scroll, post, like, and DM on these apps every day? I’ve got some predictions — and they might surprise you. 🔮
But first: the state of the union
On January 19, TikTok is set to be banned in the U.S., leaving its 170 million American users scrambling to find a replacement for the addictive video-sharing app, which was the most-downloaded app worldwide in 2024.
Meanwhile, X (formerly known as Twitter) has seen a swing to the right ever since its takeover by Elon Musk, becoming a “pro-Trump echo chamber” that is rife with misinformation due to its lax content moderation policies — which will likely become even more extreme as Musk steps into his new advisory role with the incoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency on January 20. The once-popular app has been hemorrhaging daily and monthly active users as a result, with analysts projecting that by 2025, X will have lost more than 7 million users in the U.S. alone.
Despite the grim projections for X, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta would follow their lead and make drastic changes to its content moderation approach on Instagram and Facebook, including ending third-party fact-checking. This update comes after several years of user decline on both apps as users shifted over to TikTok and Gen Z declared Instagram “cringe” — and has led to a huge spike in Google searches for “how to delete Facebook and Instagram.”
Basically: the big players are in trouble, especially in the U.S. And while some newer apps like Bluesky are seeing promising growth, there’s not yet a clear heir to the thrones of TikTok, X, or Instagram/Facebook. But it’s only a matter of time…
