“Fatiga Digital”: 27% of Brazilians plan to reduce social media use in 2026, challenging advertisers

In addition to the traditional promises of losing weight or changing cars, the list of New Year resolutions of Brazilians has gained a new priority item for 2026: the “detox digital” A survey conducted by Toluna in December points out that the digital fatigue reaches 27% of respondents, which categorically stated the intention to decrease screen time in the coming months.

The survey ignites an alert for the digital advertising market.If before the audience was captive and growing, now platforms face the risk of emptying. According to the data, the Instagram is the most threatened, with 65% of users expressing desire to reduce access. Following appear Facebook (52%), TikTok (45%), YouTube (42%) and X (formerly Twitter), with 31%.

The end of the era of “postar by posting”

For Thiago Andrade, social media manager at KAKOI Communication, the numbers indicate a structural change in the way brands should act. The model of just boosting massive ads may lose effectiveness in the face of a more selective audience.

“We know that most people only fulfill part of the objectives, but according to the research itself, 21% fully comply with them, which means a significant reduction [of audience]. It will not be enough to produce any content and boost it; everyone will do the same. It is necessary to offer quality content”, analyzes Andrade.

TikTok can gain ground on the Goal

A crucial point of the research is the disparity between the intentions of abandonment. While 65% want to curb the use of Instagram, only 45% say the same about TikTok.This difference of 20 percentage points suggests that the Chinese network, which already maintains consistent growth, can finally overtake Meta's competitor in number of active users in Brazil, better retaining the attention of the public.

Cup and Elections: the battle for remaining attention

Despite the trend of disconnection, 2026 promises to be a year of intense traffic due to two events of great emotional appeal: the World Cup and the elections.

“Both events arouse passions, so the content that can attract more public attention will do better, and this also applies to the choice of the” tool, concludes Andrade.The challenge for brands will be to capture the attention of this user who, although online for less time, will be more engaged in specific topics.