This report explores how social media has changed over the last 20 years in the United Kingdom (UK) to make people more isolated from each other online, and what needs to change.

Social media inarguably poses threats to democracy: disinformation and misinformation, polarisation, echo chambers, bots and rage-inducing algorithms. Excessive social media use and poor moderation can threaten wellbeing and safety. There’s an understandably strong media focus on these severe harms and threats. 

But for most people in the UK, social media treads more lightly on lives. People watch and share videos, help each other in community forums and marketplaces, and keep up with family and friends. It’s important to examine how most people use and experience social media, and how newer patterns of use (driven by changes to these platforms over the last 10 years) have more quietly shaped culture and politics in the UK.

This paper explores these changes: who these platforms show us, who they don’t show us, and what the cultural, democratic and political consequences might be. It warns that the trends are reshaping public life. 

Key findings

• Less than one in five posts come from people users actually know, while over a third are from people they don’t know
• Social media platforms are prioritising influencers, adverts and brands over posts from friends and family – contributing to a more divisive and less social online experience.
• Channels are no longer primarily connecting people to each other – instead, they are optimised to keep users scrolling.
• Users are not only seeing fewer people they know – they are also less likely to see what anyone else is seeing, due to the highly personalised nature of the algorithm. This is fragmenting society, making it harder to build common beliefs and politics.

Key recommendations

• Extend prominence requirements to social media platforms and expand them beyond news. 
• Amend the UK's Online Safety Act to prevent manipulative algorithmic design. 
• Encourage UK and European public service broadcasters to explore the development of a new public social media platform with the objective of public social benefit.