The Future of Social Media

Social media isn’t going anywhere. While different sites gain and lose popularity from year to year, or even month to month, it’s been an important aspect of our lives for over two decades. It’s grown and it’s changed, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse (depending on who you ask), and will continue to change and evolve as time goes on.

Where We’re At

As stated in a previous blog, social media is everywhere. 55% of the global population has a social media account, and average smartphone users spend nearly two and a half hours every day, or seventy hours a month, on social media. All this social media screentime translates into hundreds of billions of dollars for the companies that run them: In 2024, Facebook alone made over $93 billion in ad revenue, closely followed by Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok. 

Social media in 2025 is certainly defined by the rise of AI. From X’s grok to Meta AI to Youtube’s AI-driven age verification, large language models and machine learning algorithms have quickly become ingrained into the social media experience, whether as interactive chatbots or feed-altering algorithms. AI has also increased the number of bot accounts throughout social media. In 2024, bot web traffic outnumbered the web traffic of humans, who took up only 49% of global web traffic. While not all bots are malevolent, bad bots on social media artificially inflate follower accounts, generate phishing scams, harass users, and even spread propaganda and influence government elections.

Social media in 2025 has also seen the new use of social commerce. Social commerce is unlike traditional social media advertising because, rather than introducing products to consumers and influencing them towards sales, it directly puts products on social media sites for consumers to buy. Before, you might see an ad for tennis shoes that encourages you to buy them on your next visit to a shopping mall. Now, you can buy those shoes directly from the ad. Social commerce has been a game changer for brands. It simplifies the buying process for consumers, leading to more sales and reduces shopping cart abandonment. It’s an effective strategy: there are nearly 70 million social commerce buyers on Facebook in 2025, another 48 million on Instagram, and 38 million on TikTok.

Where We’re Going

Many of the trends we’ve seen in 2025 are likely to continue in the following years. The valuation of the Artificial Intelligence in Social Media market was $2.8 billion in 2024; this number is expected to grow to $10.5 billion by 2034. This is driven by social media companies’ desire to deliver curated content to their users and brands’ desire to meet consumers’ needs and expectations. Despite the growth, there are concerns about the rise of AI. Privacy, ethics, and lack of human interaction continues to plague artificial intelligence, and likely will continue to in the coming years.

We are also likely to see a rise in the creator economy. Taking it a step further from influencers, creators are the driving force behind much of social media commerce. 61% of US shoppers claim that they are likely to purchase new brands or products based on a suggestion they saw on social media. Similarly, content generated by small creators is 6.6 times more likely to influence millennials to a purchase than content made by influencers or brands. UGC, or user generated content, is seen as much more authentic and trustworthy, leading to conversion rates of nearly 30%. These small creators then may have a huge impact on social media in the near future, as it will be their voices that consumers are most likely to trust. 

As these current social media sites grow, we may also see the development of new sites. Sites like X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are so overwhelmed with content that it is becoming harder for brands and creators alike to be seen in the vast sea of posts. Many of these sites also have their own issues and pain points, from privacy to consumer fatigue to the bot accounts mentioned above. All of this will likely lead to the creation of new social media sites to soothe those pain points and fill in the gaps left behind by the current sites. Bluesky, for example, was popularized as an alternative to X after the microblogging site experienced multiple controversies. 

The future of social media, like all things, is uncertain. While it is likely that the big sites you know and love (or hate) will continue to grow and expand, how they change and why remains to be seen. Rest assured, American Consumer Opinion will continue to exist as long as these sites do; if you haven’t by now, be sure to check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok!