Back in the olden days, the Christmas Radio Times used to be the absolute oracle on what to watch over the festive period.
It was published with a suitably seasonal cover and would give all the listings for all the channels.
On Christmas Day in 1982,if you wanted to watch the Two Ronnies Christmas show you’d need to be watching BBC1 at 7.30pm. If someone wanted to see ‘The World of James Joyce’ on BBC2 they’d need to record it on VHS.
There’s a copy of a Christmas edition of the Radio Times on ebay currently listed at £57. No wonder. Nostalgia is costly.
This Christmas, traditional channels,recorded their lowest year ever. The highest ranking programme pulled in just 4.3 million viewers for the Strictly Christmas Special. In comparison, the Morcambe & Wise Special in 1977 reached 28.8 million viewers.
What you think about social media may be nostalgia.
Here are seven things that don’t apply anymore.
Social media is not now for friends and family
Social media is a way of filling spare time and follow celebrities. It is not about keeping up with friends and sharing opinions. The data absolutely shows this.
TikTok was the first to blow a hole in this approach. It deliberately chose content for you to see based on your interests not your followers. Others have followed.
For example, Facebook’s algorithm which was once just friends, family and brands is now made up of a third ‘unconnected’ updates. These updates are from accounts, groups and pages you are not following but you may find interesting depending on how you engage with content.
What you can do: Look beyond your followers and look to improve the quality of your overall content.
Your X follower numbers are now irrelevant
Back in the day, comms teams used to report the follower numbers as a metric. An account with 50,000 followers was good going.
In the old days, if you opened-up your device at 10.20am and scrolled you’d see the most recent tweets. Then, that got changed to follow Facebook’s algorithmically selected updates.
A few days ago X published their most recent algorithm which had a few surprises. More emphasis has now been placed on the ‘For You’ page. In short, this means that tweets will be algorithmically selected for you as you open your divice may not be from people you are following.
What you can do: This is a further argument to pivot away from X.
More: Here.
Instagram is about video now not pictures
Instagram used to be a place for curated and polished images. It’s now a place for video. Fifty per cent of time spent on then platform is spent watching video. Not admiring people’s breakfasts.
What you can do: Focus on more effective video.
More: Here.
On X the more you tweet now the less people will see
Not only that, but the more you tweet the less people will see your content. Why? Because X wants to avoid overloading tweets from one or two accounts.
X used to have a central place in an emergency. One organisation would post realtime updates and others would point to it. This approach has been undermined.
On its own this doesn’t mean posting to X in a crisis is wrong. As Merseyside Police showed after the Liverpool trophy parade car striking pedestrians others will share and amplify it.
More: Here.
What you can do: Tweet less.
Social media isn’t now about driving traffic anymore
If it ever was, social media in 2026 is about rewarding content that users have to stay on the platform to see or watch. All the main platforms punish those who try and take people to the press release on the website. Or any content on the website, to be honest.
This has been the case for a number of years.
What you can do: Tell the story on the platform.
Images you see are likely now not likely to be real
Since the advent of AI tools, images have become shaped at the very least by AI. Forbes suggests this is now 71 per cent of all images.
What you can do: Invest in a tool like aiornot and focus on real, human images to stand out from the crowd.
More: Here.
Comments you may see under posts may not be genuine
Many political parties and foreign governments have invested resources into influencing the debate by taking part in the debate directly.
Social media is now not free
No it isn’t, and I don’t mean the time you spend.
LinkedIn has a premium level that gives users a reach advantage. Facebook has introduced an optional £3.99 charge to dodge ads. X for some time has had levels of payment rewarded with reach.
Free access to the big town square is long gone.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
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Picture credit: VHS camera by Dhscommtech at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
