UK consumers have had enough of rubbish social media content and want to spend less time scrolling through it, a new study claims.

Respondents to a survey commissioned by Disciple Media said they spent an average of two hours and 28 minutes each week aimlessly scrolling through poor quality content.

Generation Z (those aged 18 to 24) are the most fed up, says the Passion Index Report, spending three and a half hours each week looking at poor Instagram and Facebook content. At the other end of the spectrum, the over 55s reckon they only waste one hour and 21 minutes, on average.

Despite the disillusionment, Brits still managed to clock up an average of two hours 45 minutes on social media every day.

Overall, respondents said they consider less than 50% of social media content to be high quality and 43% said social media is an unnecessary distraction, with a quarter believing social media in general has a negative effect on society.

But over 70% of people said they would join social media groups that related to personal interests, and 50% of respondents said they would join a dedicated community app if it provided content relevant to their passions and interests; of those, 34% said they would be willing to pay for exclusive content or offers.

Gen Z are the most keen to join communities providing content aimed at their passions (54%), and they would also be interested in apps from their favourite brands (41%). But just 19% of over 55s said they would be interested in social media communities away from mainstream ones such as Facebook.

The data was gathered from over 2,000 respondents during the country’s lockdown.

Disciple CEO Benji Vaughan said: “It’s not surprising so many people are disappointed with social media, when so much of it is engineered by advertisers simply to sell stuff. The first social platforms benefitted from having a market that wasn’t competitive, which helped them hoover up users’ attention – and that’s now the opportunity facing brands and creators.

“Our data shows Britain is bored of traditional social media and would love to spend less time with Facebook and more time with the things they’re passionate about.”

Sourced from Disciple Media