Social Media Is No Longer Social and Students Are Feeling It

Social media is no longer social, and most students already know it - even if they haven’t quite put it into words yet.

You scroll for hours, like a few posts, maybe reply to a story, and somehow end the day feeling more disconnected than before. You’re “connected” to hundreds of people, yet making plans feels harder than ever. Something shifted, and it wasn’t subtle.

When Online Connections Stop Becoming Real Ones

Once upon a time, social media helped people actually meet. Events turned into friendships. Group chats turned into nights out. Mutuals turned into communities.

Now? Most online connections stay exactly where they are - online.

You can follow someone for years, know their music taste, their holidays, their gym routine, their heartbreak arcs… and still never speak to them in real life. The platforms aren’t built to move you from screen to street anymore. They’re built to keep you scrolling.

Especially as a student, this hits harder. University should be the easiest place in the world to meet people, yet many students feel oddly isolated (me included) - surrounded by people, but not with them.

Social Media Rewards Performance, Not Presence

Part of why social media is no longer social is because it’s become inherently performative.

People don’t show up as they are. They show up as they want to be seen.

The best photos. The best nights. The best angles. The best versions of themselves, filtered and timed just right. Vulnerability exists, sure - but even that is often curated, captioned, and optimised for engagement.

Over time, this creates distance. You’re not interacting with people, you’re interacting with personas. And it’s hard to build genuine connection with something that feels more like a brand than a human.

Algorithms Replaced Communities

Another uncomfortable truth: social media platforms no longer care if you feel connected. They care if you stay.

Algorithms now decide what you see, who you interact with, and what gets buried. Real friendships, local communities, and spontaneous connections are less “valuable” than content that keeps you emotionally hooked.

That’s why your feed feels loud but empty. Full but hollow. Always updating, rarely grounding.

Why Students Feel This More Than Anyone

Students are at a stage of life where community actually matters. New cities, new identities, new independence. Yet instead of helping, social media often amplifies comparison, loneliness, and surface-level interaction.

You’re told you’re surrounded by opportunity - but somehow still end up spending evenings alone, scrolling through other people living lives you’re supposedly part of.

That disconnect is exhausting.

This Is Why I Built Uni-Chat

This is why I decided to build Uni-Chat.

Not to replace social media, but to fix what it stopped doing.

I wanted to bring back the social aspect - real people, real proximity, real shared experiences - but shaped around today’s needs. Less performance, more presence. Less noise, more connection. A platform where online interaction actually leads somewhere offline.

Social networking doesn’t have to feel fake. And being a student doesn’t have to feel lonely.

It just needs to be social again.