By 2025, it’s official: likes and comments don’t mean what they used to. Instagram’s engagement rate has dropped to just 0.61%. TikTok’s still leading, but even there, it’s slipping. And platforms like X are barely hanging on. So is social media broken? Not quite. It’s just changing. Algorithms are now rewarding depth , not surface-level reactions. That means shares, saves, DMs, and watch time are the new gold. Much of today’s engagement is private, invisible to your metrics