The term “social networks” has become fossilized in our vocabulary, a linguistic inertia that hides a very different technological and sociological reality. However, social networks, as they were conceived, are dead. What we consume today are commercial platforms for mass entertainment, built on an architecture that no longer seeks connection between people, but rather the retention of attention in the face of an endless spectacle and, to a large extent, amateur.
To understand this death, it is necessary to look back at the archeology of the internet. In their beginnings, platforms like Six Degrees and, later, myspace or the first Facebook, had a clear mission: to move the social graph from the physical world to the virtual environment. The goal was to establish connections, whether with acquaintances or like-minded strangers, and the interaction was fundamentally conversational. The user actively built their network and the content they consumed was, strictly, what that network generated. The publication of a photograph or a status was an invitation to dialogue, a connection node that strengthened the relationship between people.
From the network of contacts to feed of interest
In the current paradigm, however, emotional or relational closeness to the content creator is irrelevant. What matters is the capacity of that content to retain the user for microseconds. The TikTok algorithm, for example, does not reward friendship: it focuses on displaying content inferred from microsignals (viewing time, repetitions, pauses).
This has turned users into passive spectators of an incessant flow of short videos, memes and opinions from people with whom they have, and will not have, any real connection. Facebook and Instagram have gone from organizing around “people and accounts you follow” to showing “more relevant content recommended by AI systems”, that is, a “discovery engine”. The metaphor is no longer that of the social club, but that of the catalogue.
When the objective is to retain
This change alters incentives. Publishing “for yours” makes less sense if distribution depends on a system that rewards the probability of consumption, not the quality of the link. In practice, the relational is moving towards private messaging, small groups and ephemeral content, while the public has become a mere showcase.
In this scenario, the conversation exists, although it is no longer the main economic unit. What is monetized is sustained attention. And that’s where advertising saturation fits in: the more minutes in, the more impressions, the more segmentation, the more data collected from the user.
Free content, expensive ads
The transformation has impeccable business logic. The platforms host and distribute a massive amount of content produced by users who, the vast majority, do not charge anything. That content is abundant, renewable, customizable and cheap. The platform sells advertising around (and within) that foreign production, without assuming the costs of traditional media groups: editorials, licenses, production, rights.
Monetization is even expanding into territories that previously seemed like “safe harbors” for the social. Meta has already announced the introduction of advertising and subscriptions on WhatsAppeven if you focus on the “News” tab and not on the chats. The movement is symbolic: messaging, where the intimacy of the link is still preserved, is also integrated into the logic of the commercial product.
Even LinkedIn, the last bastion of pure professional social networking, has begun to pollute its feed with “inspirational” content and algorithmic recommendations that have little to do with the professional’s direct network of contacts, seeking to increase the time spent in the application at the expense of job relevance.
YouTube and the obvious proof
In this debate it is worth including a clarification: YouTube has been called a social network a thousand times without ever having been. It is, above all, an entertainment platform with a social layer. You can comment, subscribe, like or chat live, but the center of the system is not creating contacts, it is consuming video. The interesting thing is that many networks have become “youtubed”: they maintain social functions, but their heart is the algorithmic recommendation aimed at retention.
The paradox is that the platforms themselves recognize, indirectly, that the change has been profound. Meta has started testing features for reset Instagram recommendations and remember that there are alternatives such as feed of “Followed” in chronological order. If a button is needed for us to manage our own experience, it is because the algorithm is no longer an assistant: it is, by default, the programming director.
Should we stop calling them social networks?
In the Spanish context, this reality is palpable with data. He Social Network Study 2025 by IAB Spain sheds a very clear light on the paradigm shift: the main motivation of Spanish users to use these platforms is no longer “to stay in touch with friends”, but “to be entertained”, a goal cited by more than 80% of those surveyed.
Phenomena like Kings League or the rise of streamers Spaniards are nothing more than the professionalization of this entertainment within platforms that already function as the new generalist networks.
In short, in a moment in which it is proposed to veto its access to minors under 16 years of agewe must start calling things by their name. Continuing to call Instagram, TikTok or X social networks is a categorical mistake. They are algorithmic entertainment platforms where human interaction has been relegated to the background, always subordinated to the commercial imperative of keeping us looking at the screen for as long as possible.
The network, understood as human tissue, has been broken. What remains is a fragmented, lonely and perpetually entertained global audience.
Fernando Czech GarciaProfessor and digital marketing consultant. Director of the Master in Social Networks at UNIR, UNIR – International University of La Rioja
This article was originally published in The Conversation. Read the original.
