Experts warn social media activity can be weaponised years later
· Citizen
Social media behaviour is changing fast. Users, according to netnographer Carmen Murray, are increasingly treating every post, like and follow as a potential liability. Consequently, online behaviour is moving away from spontaneous self-expression toward careful reputation management.
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Digital activity leaves a forever footprint that can be revisited, reinterpreted and, in some cases, weaponised years later. Murray said that every day online behaviour was becoming “permanent behavioural evidence” rather than casual sharing.
“People are no longer posting freely, they are posting carefully,” she said. “There has been a rise in considered behaviour instead of spontaneous self-expression. Many users are managing risk, reputation and consequence in systems that rewarded caution over authenticity.”
‘Conscious absenteeism’
Murray said online backlash made social media users aware that comments could be taken out of context or resurface in a different environment. Public shaming, workplace scrutiny and professional consequences have made some people self-censor or withdraw from public participation altogether.
A pattern of “conscious absenteeism” has emerged where users remain on platforms but choose not to post or engage at all. Concerns about surveillance, geopolitics and digital identity systems also heighten caution.
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According to Murray, these days, online activity could affect travel, employment or compliance processes, even when digital behaviour is casual or exploratory. In addition, the structure of social media feeds has changed.
“Algorithmic recommendations and AI-driven content has started replacing chronological community feeds built around friends and chosen networks. This resulted in many users feeling disconnected from the audiences they thought they had.”
The knock-on impact may be that people start feeling lonely or ostracised, but, in reality, their communities were not seeing their posts and vice versa, she added. Instagram is facing criticism for favouring reposts and recommended content over original creation.
Closed user group environments
Murray said declining original posting was becoming a concern for platforms reliant on user-generated content. Many people are moving to closed user group environments.
“Subscription newsletters, private groups and company intranets are gaining traction as places to speak openly,” Murray said.
“From the outside, it looked like people want less connection. But in practice, they simply moved it behind closed doors.”
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There is also a moral and emotional change in online culture. With conflict, inequality and crisis fatigue, aspirational lifestyle content is increasingly viewed as out of step, Murray said. Audiences are tired of polished perfection and curated personas.
“What many people want now is the human behind the highlights reel, the journey and the struggle, not only the polished ending.”
Social media and younger users
In addition to digital attitudes and content behaviour changing, Murray warned that passive signals the public has taken for granted over the years, such as likes, follows and repeated viewing, could be misread by algorithms these days. Code cannot distinguish curiosity from endorsement.
“Algorithms read patterns, not nuance,” she said. “Those patterns could be interpreted as beliefs or affiliations a person never intended to signal.”
The risk is more pronounced for younger users because they have more time ahead to live digitally and a greater audit trail left behind, too.
“Growing up in an environment where documenting life online is the default means that emotions, mistakes and conflicts are often stored forever,” Murray said.
“In addition, many young people have not been taught the boundary between private and public sharing.”
Tagging culture further blurs consent, with visibility often assumed rather than negotiated. Murray said tagging has been used as a workaround to regain reach in algorithmic feeds, turning association into exposure.
“The result,” she said, “is an online environment where digital traces carry weight long after the moment has passed. Digital behaviour is gaining authority because it is recorded and retrievable. But it lacks the full human context in which those actions happened.”
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