The increased volume of AI-generated videos online could eventually turn people away from social media platforms, an expert has said.
Social media platforms are embracing AI-generated content because it creates advertising revenue, according to Dr Constance de Saint Laurent, who is Assistant Professor of Sociotechnical Systems at Maynooth University, but added that it might not be sustainable.
“People are still there and watching. It’s weird, it’s bad, it’s new. So long as they look at it, it will still have the ads and it will be fine,” Dr de Saint Laurent said.
“At some point the model will have to become worse and worse. But that is the question we have for everything that is happening online.
“Everything we did online started being quite good and interesting and is becoming worse and worse.”
It is likely that people will then reconsider the time they spend on social media, she said.
“We already knew that the time you were spending on social media wasn’t really paying off. You’re staying because you’re hoping something interesting will come up or you have nothing better to do.
“Usually at the end when you put down your phone, you’re feeling a bit disgusted with yourself and the time you spent there.
“If on top of that, now what you see is primarily AI-generated or paid-for content, you feel even worse and that makes you even more likely to not go back on that platform.”
AI social platforms launched
Meta and OpenAI have embraced AI-generated content with new platforms that only cater for the creation and sharing of short-form AI video.
The platforms are not yet available for download in Ireland but can be accessed in the United States and Canada.
Through Meta’s ‘Vibes’ platform, users can make videos from text prompts and upload them to the Vibes feed or cross-post to Instagram and Facebook.
OpenAI’s Sora boasts a similar feel, with a “cameo” feature that would place a person’s face into AI-generated video.
OpenAI said that protections will be in place about the type of content users see and who can use a person’s likeness in a video.
ChatGPT’s parent-company added that the platform is designed to maximise creation, not consumption or time in the app.
The Global Digital Reports by DataReportal tracks internet usage around the world.
In its 2025 report, it found that the typical internet user spent two hours and 21 minutes on social media a day, a decrease of ten minutes compared to what was reported two years previously.
The same data shows that the average internet user in Ireland spends one hour and 52 minutes a day on social media, seven minutes fewer than before.
Dr de Saint Laurent said an increased reliance on AI and chatbots could also be behind the reduction.
“People have been hating on social media for a while now, so it is expected that at some point they’ll stop using it,” she said.
“The usage was not going down, even though people were complaining a lot. The question is more why is it coming now.
“And I think the biggest issue is not whether people like social media or not, it’s what do they do when they’re not on social media,” she said.
Dr de Saint Laurent added: “We know people are using AI more and more to discuss things they would have checked on social media or discussed with friends. I’m not sure that’s a much better thing, replacing it with something else.”
Feelings of increased negativity or toxicity on social media are often not enough of a reason for people to quit social media, she said, referencing X, which was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded from Twitter.
It would therefore take “a big moment” of a platform going “too far in being bad” to lead to a mass exodus of users.
Instead, she said the AI bubble bursting could change what social media platforms offer.
“A lot of the social media companies are starting to bet their money on AI, so when that bursts, they will also be in big financial trouble.
“Some of the bets they’ve done on their social networks are going to be less viable for them so that might be the push that is needed.
“People have been calling out the death of social media for the past five years and it still has not happened, so something else will come because that is the course of history,” said Dr de Saint Laurent.
Disconnecting from social media
One person who took the step to remove themselves from social media is 32-year-old Seán, who lives in Dublin and describes himself as someone who uses the internet more than average.
Seán said that he deleted his accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn around two years ago.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he said that he started to question how positive social media was, but continued to defend the good parts of it.
“The real breaking point for me was the 7 October attack in Israel and the fallout from that, seeing people glorifying killing Palestinian children and all sorts of displays of inhumanity that are on full display, proudly, all across social media. That was the time I was like ‘this is more bad than good’,” he said.
The move was initially for his own mental health, Seán added.
“I have started to attach some more meaning to the idea of quitting social media as a rejection of the way that massive corporations like Google and Meta want to reformat being human and communicating with people and experiencing life,” he said.
Seán said he is no longer aware of the feeling of being disconnected and that even if he was “it wouldn’t justify the idea of staying on social media”.
“Initially you do get bored and you do look for something to fill your time but eventually you just fill it. You pick up the book you were avoiding reading, you play your instrument again and you find yourself embracing activities and things that are nourishing to the human condition.”
He said that he has found more of his friends making a similar decision and that staying on social media is something that should be weighed up.
“A lot of these companies spend so much of their advertising budget to market to us and tell us how positive their outlook on the world… But this is being done for very cynical reasons.
“There is a very cynical underpinning behind that to make money, to figure out our behaviour, to study and analyse and dissect us – psychologically at least.”
Article Source – AI videos could turn people off social media – expert
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