There was a time when social media felt like a gift to creative professionals. Free portfolio. The doors to global studios suddenly opened. A place where your work can be staffed without gatekeepers.
Most people believe that era is over. In this article, we share content from members of the Creative Boom community real Think about the state of social platforms today.
The conversation was raw, sometimes vitriolic, and surprisingly unanimous on one issue: something fundamental had been broken. You can read the full discussion on LinkedIn and on our own private network, The Studio. (Not a member of The Studio yet? Join now; it’s free!)
Numbers don’t lie
Fontwerk founder Ivo Gabrowitsch asked this question. “Today’s ‘successful’ post might attract 10% of your followers,” he began. “To me, that means the concept of social media is dead.” It’s hard to argue with logic. If you only experience a tenth of what you signed up for, what exactly have you been involved in?
Type designer Jean François Porchez agrees, calling Instagram the design world’s worst offender. “Designers who publish every day are like dinosaurs, watching their universe collapse and unable to do anything about it,” he said. “They continue to hope for something that won’t happen. User-created content fills the gap between ads!”
What’s most tiring about these discussions is not just a sense of platform fatigue, but the broader expectation that creatives must also be content creators, audience builders, and algorithmic whisperers. As user experience consultant Becky Colley says, “Social media is less about the expectation that we’re always online and available. I’m responding to Slack messages, Teams messages, meetings, and calls every day. Since social media no longer feels fun, the last thing I want to do is continue to connect with people through a screen in the evenings and weekends.”
Creative director Paul Leon agrees, describing a system that turns connections into obligations. “Social media has gone from being something that connects, entertains and educates to a forced drudgery, a form of indentured servitude regulated by profit algorithms,” he said. “Exhausting, boring, management irrelevant. These are all terms I use to describe ‘social media.’ When a business shifts from creating great products to just making money, it shows; no matter what the business.”
For strategic brand designer Sophie O’Connor, it’s a constant rollercoaster of emotions. “Sometimes I’m so inspired to create a post or volume and enjoy the process. Other times it feels like a chore as I’m looking around for relevant ideas. There’s a lot of pressure to be a content creator these days because the old ways of using social media no longer seem to work. It’s tiring, but necessary – to keep you ‘on top’ and reach new audiences.”
necessary evil
The term “necessary evil” came up repeatedly in our discussions. Richard Brandon Taylor, founder of Brandon, captured the cognitive dissonance involved. “I think most people in the creative industries are trying to keep their heads above water because their legs are flapping like crazy underwater,” he explains. “As a result, social media is difficult to integrate into our daily working lives.”
He added a footnote pointing out an apparent paradox. “I realized I was responding to this on LinkedIn. When you make sure you have your finger on the pulse of the creative world, it’s a drug you sometimes can’t escape.”
But to what end? As photo retoucher Sandrine Bascouert reflects: “In that golden age, people put all their faith in social posts to achieve reach, myself included. But in the end, nothing can replace being in the right place, Instagram, LinkedIn or X will never replace our own spaces: websites, newsletters, blogs.”
Sandrine adds something both shocking and relatable. In her years of professional posting, she’s gained two clients from social media…and both came through her personal account instead of her professional account.
Adapt rather than surrender
For the sake of balance, though, we should point out that not everyone is despairing of social media. Some creatives have found ways to make platforms work on their own terms, even if those conditions are mild.
Take visual storyteller Fiifi Džansi, who returned after a year-long hiatus from social media with a stronger attitude and clearer purpose. “I now use it to curate my work on my own terms,” he explains. “I ignored the hostility and anger, and I never cared about the algorithm. I just put my work out there in case someone stumbled upon it. And, occasionally, I still meet really nice people socially.”
Yes, social media is not what it used to be. But some, like creative marketing strategist Carmela Vienna, see opportunity in this shift. “Today, networking is less about vanity and more about relevance and consistency,” she said. “While real-life relationships are more important than ever, social media is a great tool for keeping people sane, and the foundation is built through community and exposure.”
For example, one of Carmella’s storytelling-style scrolls prompted three separate job inquiries, all from people with whom she already had a relationship. The platform amplifies existing connections; it is not created from scratch.
Great for unplugging
But for others, the answer is to leave. Graphic designer Meredith Blumenfeld quit her job a few years ago and hasn’t looked back. “The time I used to spend socializing is now spent doing other things,” she said. “Going to coffee shops, hanging out with friends, reading, baking, painting. So much of my life – physically, emotionally, spiritually – has been liberated by being freed from the constant pressure to keep up and the constant comparison game.”
In fact, brand designer Zoe Foreman questions whether humans are designed to handle such a large amount of input. “I don’t think we should have so much access to the world and a constant flow of information,” she asserts. “You need to make a conscious effort to use social media the way you want to, actively avoid doomscrolling and make sure you’re actually looking for your friends’ posts to engage with them, which can make the experience less enjoyable.”
Main points
So where does this leave us? While there’s no consensus among creatives that social media is dead, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the old contract is dead. The deal used to be: publish your work, build an audience, and get discovered. The deal has been rewritten by algorithms optimized for ad revenue, and the inconvenient fact is that creative professionals are collateral damage.
What replaces it will look a lot like what existed before social media. Word of mouth, genuine relationships, private communities, newsletters, personal websites, and physical presence where it matters. Of course, what this means on a day-to-day level varies from creative to creative.
Designer Mark Richardson, for example, has completely simplified his approach to using only LinkedIn, where he focuses on “inspiring information that gives me hope for positive change and new ideas that might help us solve the big problems we face as a species.” Meanwhile, illustrator Juliana Salcedo has been pared down to the bare essentials after years of working on every platform imaginable. “I’m tired of the endless hours I’ve spent online since I was in my twenties,” she complained. “I wanted a more personal connection.”
Ultimately, these multi-billion dollar platforms are not going away. But what about the creatives who shaped them into what they are today? They are already leaving. Or at least, learn to care less about them.
