Social Media Isn’t Dead — It’s Just Unrecognizable (And That’s On Purpose)

When Mark Zuckerberg tells a federal court that “social media is over,” you have to pause, not because he’s wrong, but because it’s him saying it.

In Kyle Chayka’s recent New Yorker piece, Zuckerberg’s testimony reveals what anyone paying real attention has seen unfolding for years: Facebook (and by extension Instagram) has fundamentally shifted from being about connecting people to simply keeping them “on-platform.”

And the platforms themselves have been engineered, brick by brick, to get us to this moment.

What’s striking, and a bit laughable, is how Zuckerberg points to the decrease in users seeing content from friends (from 22% to 17% on Facebook, 11% to 7% on Instagram) as if it’s some inevitable shift caused by user behavior.

Let’s be clear: Meta controls the algorithm. Meta decided to prioritize paid ads, viral content, public Reels, creator videos, and AI-generated posts. Users didn’t spontaneously stop caring about their friends. The platforms stopped showing them.

It’s like setting the house on fire and then testifying in court that fire is just a natural hazard of living indoors.

The Big Shift: From Social Graphs to Content Graphs

What Zuckerberg is really describing, without quite saying it out loud, is that the social graph model (where your experience is built around your network of friends) has been almost fully replaced by the content graph model (where your experience is built around whatever content the platform’s AI thinks will keep you scrolling).

TikTok perfected this model. And now Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube have raced to copy it.

There’s a kind of inevitability to it: real human relationships don’t scale to billions of people in the way viral videos do. But it also kills the whole idea that social media was ever about “connecting people.” Now it’s about feeding attention-maximizing algorithms with a steady diet of whatever performs best, regardless of source.

In that sense, Zuckerberg is right: the original social media dream is "dead".

But the new machine? Very much alive, and far more extractive.

Blurring of Platform Identities

Another notable point from Zuckerberg’s testimony is the claim that the social media market is so competitive now that no single platform can dominate. On paper, that sounds good, competition should breed innovation, right?

Except...all the platforms are morphing into the same thing. Again. (SEE: Stories)

• Facebook looks like Instagram.

• Instagram looks like TikTok.

• YouTube is pushing more Shorts and vertical video.

• Even messaging apps like iMessage are now laced with discoverable media layers.

• Everyone wants to be TikTok.

In this sameness, platform identity becomes meaningless. What matters is attention capture. Whoever captures more of your time wins, even if the content feels hollow and interchangeable.

For creators, marketers, and brands (my people), this creates both opportunity and chaos. You can reach wider audiences, sure — but you have to fight harder to build actual community or loyalty because you’re no longer working inside organic social circles; you’re fighting inside an endless entertainment feed.

A Future Without Friends?

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising idea floated by Meta (internally, per the New Yorker article) was removing the concept of “friends” altogether from Facebook and pivoting fully to a “followers” model.

You read that correctly. The core mechanic that built Facebook into a $900 billion company would be discarded.

Would that fix Facebook’s engagement problems? Doubtful. It might even accelerate the exodus. People don’t need another version of TikTok with worse content recommendations and a feed cluttered with family group photos and stale memes. They need meaningful reasons to open an app every day, something increasingly rare in an entertainment-first model.

Plus, philosophically, it feels like the final betrayal of Facebook’s original brand promise. “It’s free and always will be”, except now it’s free but you’re not the customer; you’re the product, pure and simple. (I'd argue this has always been the case, but now its just more obvious).

Build Smarter on Rented Land

Social media didn’t “die.” It was reprogrammed by the platforms into something unrecognizable from its original promise.

It stopped being about connection.

It stopped being about community.

It became about keeping you endlessly scrolling for someone else’s profit.

It’s still OK to build on rented land, if you build with intention. Experienced marketers (myself included) aren’t saying “don’t use social media.”

We’re saying understand what it is:

• It’s a tool.

• It’s a channel.

• It’s a high-traffic, high-opportunity place, but you don’t control it.

You can absolutely build audience, brand affinity, and even business on rented land.

You just can’t stop there. You can’t pretend you “own” anything until you pull your audience closer into channels you actually control like your website, your email list, or your private communities.

And that’s where the concept of Zero-Click Content comes in. As the folks at SparkToro have laid out brilliantly, the modern web rewards content that delivers value right there, right now, without making people click away.

Platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok penalize outbound links — they want to keep users inside the ecosystem.

That means smart brands and creators have to meet people where they are.

You have to make the content itself so valuable, so insightful, so helpful, that clicking away becomes optional — not required.

When you combine Zero-Click Marketing with a long-term owned strategy, you create a system where:

• You grow awareness on rented land.

• You build trust with Zero-Click value.

• You convert onto channels you own.

That’s how you actually win, and build something that can survive algorithm changes, policy shifts, and platform chaos.

In 2025 and beyond, smart builders aren’t abandoning social media. They’re using it with clear eyes, solid strategies, and real ownership behind the scenes.