Social Media Usage and Behaviour in 2024 and 2025

Our analysis of social media usage and behaviours in 2024, and our predictions for 2025.
Ciara Garcha
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3 minutes

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Bravada Summary

  • Customers are attempting to limit their screen time and social media usage
  • Short-form videos continue to have high engagement and video-based platforms are the fastest growing
  • Pinterest is growing in the UK, especially amongst women.
  • Generation Z, ‘Gen Z’ (born between 1997 and 2010) are moving away from streaming platforms like Netflix towards TikTok and YouTube
  • Ad-blocker usage is declining overall, but continues to be widespread amongst 15-45 year olds.

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Areas of Growth

  • Social media usage in the UK continues to be spread across a large number of platforms. UK social media users spend an average of 1 hour and 49 minutes across 6.4 platforms (source).
  • Pinterest was one of the fastest-growing platforms in the UK in 2024. It added 5.9 million people to its potential ad audience, a growth of 77.9% on the previous year (source). As of March 2024, 71% of UK Pinterest users were women (source).
  • TikTok dominates UK social media usage amongst Generation Z, ‘Gen Z’, (born 1997-2012). Users spend an average of 49 hours per month on the Android App (source). However, as of April 2023, the fastest-growing platform amongst this age group was BeReal, with a 313% increase in users and 1,200% in Gen Z usage (source).
  • TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are growing in popularity in less economically developed countries, such as Nigeria and South Africa - growth in popularity of these platforms is driven by the younger population in these regions (source).

Popular Content

  • Social media users reported that their favourite type of content was short-form videos. Forbes reported that videos of less than a minute in length got the attention of 66% of consumers and were 2.5 times more engaging than longer videos (source).
  • The popularity of short-form content was also tied to concerns around social media and ‘authenticity’; 34% of consumers felt short-form videos were more genuine (source) and 47% of Gen Z reported their favourite content was social media videos and live streams (source).
  • 60% of Gen Z also reported preferring social media videos to streaming. Social media algorithms can serve users relevant content, whereas streaming platforms require the user to search for what they want.
    • Social media user-generated content is also free; Deloitte reported that Gen Z and Millennial consumers were cancelling Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) subscriptions at a higher rate (source).

Social Media Marketing

  • Users are increasingly critical of social media advertisements, driven by concerns around authenticity and representation. Only 8% feel represented by the ads they see, a decrease from 14%.
  • Social media ads are also seen as an annoyance by some, with 28% reporting the use of an ad blocker (source). This is however a decrease, from 36% in 2020 (source). Ad-blockers are still widely used amongst younger age groups: a 2023 poll found that 41% of 15-25-year-olds used ad-blockers, followed by 40% of 26-35 and 34% of 26-45-year-olds (source).
  • Influencers continue to shape consumer trends. 50% of millennials (born between 1983 and 1997) trust social media influencers’ product recommendations. This likely speaks to concerns around authenticity and users’ greater scepticism of social media advertisements; influencers as trusted figures clearly still impact consumer choices (source).

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Recommendations

  • A desire to decrease social media usage in 2025 has been predicted, owing to concerns around misinformation, toxic online cultures and a desire to limit screen time (source).
    • Spread advertisement and social media presence across different platforms. People are aiming to limit their time on social media, but are spreading the time they do spend across multiple different platforms.
    • Partner with relevant influencers. Working with influencers, who have an established following and reputation, will give consumers confidence in the brand and its ‘authenticity’.
  • Whilst Facebook continues to be the most popular and widely-used social media site globally (source), younger users are increasingly turning towards video-based platforms like TikTok and YouTube, which will continue to grow and have already overtaken Facebook in the UK, in terms of time spent on the platform (source).
    • Advertise through short-form videos and content.  Produce videos of less than a minute for TikTok and YouTube.
  • Ad blockers usage will grow amongst under-45’s.
    • Content marketing through videos and influencer content mitigates the issue of ad blockers. People will consume ads through their regular social media feeds.

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Photographs used under the Creative Commons License