A new study on digital wellness finds social media marketers in multiple countries are mentally drained by 24/7 expectations, thin supervisor support, and tools that promise freedom while keeping them “always on.” With more than 40% planning to leave within tw
It’s almost midnight when the phone buzzes. A client message needs a reply, a comment has to be answered, and another trend is already slipping into yesterday. For people running brand accounts, the workday doesn’t just stretch—it dissolves.
In the research world that studies digital and social media wellness, the pattern is no longer anecdotal. In a study published in September 2025, researchers interviewed social media marketers in the United States, Ireland, India, Germany, and Australia. The interviews pointed to a profession that is “quietly running on empty”: passionate. creative people who are mentally drained by work that rarely turns off.
The numbers match what workers describe. More than 40% of social media marketers plan to leave their jobs within two years, and nearly half say they get little support from supervisors for their mental health, according to industry research.
The core problem is simple—and brutal: this job is built into the same platforms that deliver the work. The platform is their workplace, their tool, and often their leisure environment. The apps marketers use to create content. monitor engagement. and respond to customers are also the same ones they use for entertainment. social connection. and news. So the source of stress isn’t something they can simply walk away from.
Then there’s time. Global data puts the average person’s social media use at about 2.5 hours a day. The marketers interviewed for the study often spend easily double or triple that, because they’re both producers and consumers of content.
One manager described it as “truly 24/7, 365,” adding: “You have to post on holidays, weekends.” Another line captured the constant pressure of deadlines without mercy: “There is always a clock ticking somewhere.”
That strain is showing publicly as well. When Zaria Parvez, Duolingo’s social media manager and designer of its famous owl logo, left her job, she spoke openly about virality, anxiety, and mental health. Even platform industry guides now treat burnout as a fact of the profession.
The comparison trap makes it worse. To stay current, marketers spend evenings “doom scrolling” their personal feeds, hunting for trends to use at work. The line between relaxing and researching disappears—and the line between watching other creators and measuring themselves against them vanishes too. One marketer told researchers that scrolling felt like “constantly being told I was doing things wrong”—at work. where every post invites comparison with competitors. and at home. where lifestyle content tells her she’s failing there as well. The study frames social comparison as one of the best-documented ways social media erodes self-esteem. and argues these workers experience it twice: personal and professional. all day. every day.
A second driver is what the researchers call the paradox of tools. The industry’s default solution is technology. Scheduling platforms let marketers queue posts weeks ahead, and artificial intelligence tools can draft captions and reports. One interviewee described content tools as “the primary method for social media managers to combat burnout.” But the help comes with a catch.
Scheduled posts can backfire when the news turns grim, because someone still has to watch the feed. Algorithms reward constant. fresh engagement. leaving marketers anxious that leaning on AI makes their content sound robotic—a real risk in a medium where authenticity matters. The tools promise freedom, but they don’t change the expectation that work stays active.
The study also argues the burnout isn’t simply a willpower problem. The roles are often poorly defined and junior in practice. bundling strategy. design. customer service. and crisis management into one position. Stepping back has a direct cost because time offline shows up in the metrics people are judged on.
There’s also a cultural mismatch around availability. Americans, the researchers say, often equate round-the-clock access with dedication to the job. Other countries have pushed back. France. Italy. Spain. and Ireland have written a “right to disconnect” into law. and Australia recently extended its own version to small-business employees.
One member of the research team, Kiley Pettit, described what blurred boundaries look like from inside the work. She has worked as a full-time traveler. balancing clients across multiple countries and time zones. with the workday stretching from early mornings to late night. In her account to researchers, the boundaries between work and personal time have become increasingly blurred.
For marketers trying to escape the trap, the study points to two personal routes. First, disconnection is personal: a “radical break” may restore one person, while another may do better with smaller changes like response windows or boundary scripts for clients—for example, “I reply between 9 and 5.”
Second, it recommends using technology deliberately: schedule proactively instead of chasing trends in real time, and treat AI as an assistant for routine tasks, not as a replacement for the creative work that makes social media marketing worthwhile.
But the research also draws a line the individual fixes can’t cross. Burnout, it says, is built into the job—so the job has to change.
The deeper fix is structural. Employers should define social media roles more clearly and staff them realistically. Communication charters should include real response windows. and digital fatigue should become a normal topic during check-ins rather than something people confess because they’re struggling. The study adds that turnover costs one-half to two times a worker’s salary. making support not only humane but financially sensible.
Social media marketing burnout, in the researchers’ view, isn’t a personal failing or ordinary workplace stress. It’s the predictable outcome of an environment where the workplace. the tools of the trade. and often leisure time all occupy the same space. Brands profiting from that attention—and the employers hiring for it—now face a decision: whether the people behind the screens get to log off. too.
Kelley Cours Anderson is an assistant professor of marketing at the College of Charleston. Ashley Hass is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Portland. Breanne A. Mertz is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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