Global Survey Unveils Influencer Aspirations, Social Media Trends, and AI's Growing Role in Content Creation

IZEA’s Influencer Aspirations report is here which provides some insights for different influencers, who have already become one and the ones who are aspiring to become one, and how influencer marketing is playing an important role in the lives of many consumers. For the report, a total of 6,000 social media users were surveyed from 6 countries, 1,000 each from one country. According to the survey, 25% of the respondents who use social media consider themselves influencers, with most of it seen in China (45%), followed by the US (27%) and UK (21%). Only 7% of the respondents who were surveyed had over 500k followers. Most of the respondents had less than 1,000 followers.

Respondents were asked if they personally know someone who makes money from social media influencing, and 43% respondents answered with yes. Most of the respondents who said that they know someone who earns money as a social media influencer were from China (68%), followed by Mexico (41%) and the US (40%). China also leads with most respondents aspiring to become influencers (60%), followed by Mexico (45%) and Canada (28%). This trend was not seen much in the US and it seems like not many people in the US aspire to become influencers.

63% of the respondents of the survey were also ready to quit their jobs if they can make a living as a social media influencer. 79% of the respondents from Mexico said so, followed by 62% respondents from Canada and 61% from China. When influencers were asked what their employment status was, 68% of the influencers said that they work full time, with most of the influencers from China working full time (83%). The survey also found that most of the influencers are more likely to be self-employed than general social media users.

• Also read: Stop Guessing, Start Knowing: The Social Media Tools You Need for 2025

When respondents were asked if they would accept payments or free products from brands to promote their products, 78% answered with yes. 45% of the influencers from China said that they received payment from the brand for a sponsored post. As it's the era of technology, respondents were also asked if they use AI for creating content they post on social media. 59% of the social media users said that they use AI tools for their posts, with 48% of the respondents from China saying that they use them often, followed by 36% from Mexico and 27% from the US.

In case of most hours spent on social media, Mexico led the list with respondents using social media for an average 6.8 hours, followed by average 6.4 hours a day spent by respondents in China and 5.8 hours average spent by respondents in the US. The survey also found that social media users who spent more than average 5 hours on social media are 3.2 more likely to get paid by brands to promote their products.

Read next:

• Clickbait, Chaos, and Burnout: How This Year Redefined Our Social Media Experience

• Mobile Addiction Soars, Americans Check Phones 205 Times Daily, Survey Reveals

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Did Apple Keep You in the Dark About Data Sharing in ‘Enhanced Visual Search’?

Tech giant Apple is known for its stronghold on privacy measures and ensuring users’ data remains safe. However, a recently published blog by Jeff Johnson is raising the curtain on a feature for iPhone users that might be doing more than promised.

The feature in question for iOS users is called ‘Enhanced Visual Search’ and when this toggle is on for the device’s Photos app, usually by default, it’s giving the phone permission to share information from the saved photos with Apple.

Image: lapcatsoftware

Many were quick to check if that was indeed true and they were amazed how they had no idea. The feature allows users to search for some top-notch landmarks that they’ve previously captured and even explore more pictures using the same names. All in all, it does make the search process much more defined but the cost is users’ privacy.

This is not the first time that we’ve seen Apple turn back on its own claims. It previously tarnished its reputation of being a strong privacy enthusiast when collecting users’ interactions with voice assistant Siri.

If you want to experience it too, simply swipe on an image that you took of a building and click on ‘Look up Landmark’. You’ll find a card pop-up that really identifies you. Several examples were also shared to prove the point.

For many, a first glance shows nothing alarming. It’s a simple and very convenient expansion for the already popular Visual Look Up that was rolled out on iOS 15. However, the latter never required additional permission to share more information with the iPhone maker but this one does.

You can find descriptions under every toggle that speak about Apple providing permission to silently match locations in the images with global indexes that are covered by Apple. You can get more information through the blog including how the feature really works to give you regions of interest related to the landmark you’re in search of.

As per this blog, the embedded vector gets encrypted and shared with Apple so that it can be compared with the database. You’ll see the iPhone maker provide its fair share of explanations on this front through technical means. This is a part of Apple’s research blog and if you ask us, not a lot of it makes sense.

For now, we’re in search of Apple’s response on this front. They didn’t provide any immediate reply on whether the accusations of data sharing were true or not. For now, it appears the firm went to long lengths to ensure information remains private.

We feel that making this toggle a feature where users could opt-in was a better way to go about the whole situation. Right now, it seems like Apple tried to keep the fact that data was shared with the company under wraps, and for any company, that’s never a good look.

Read next: The Hidden Cost of Innovation: How Tech Giants Are Funding the Backbone of AI
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Hidden Cost of Innovation: How Tech Giants Are Funding the Backbone of AI

With more usage of AI tech and new technology, many tech giants are investing billions of dollars for AI data centers so they can meet the demand for computational energy that can handle the latest AI infrastructure and workload. Data centers have hefty operating costs but they make the running of AI data centers possible. Data from JP Morgan and New Street Research shows how much big techs are spending on AI data centers, including software, operating expenses, depreciation and electricity.

The most investment on AI data centers is being done by Microsoft, with most spent on GPUs($20 billion) and other AI spend ($20 billion) which makes total capex of $40 billion. The cost spent on training and R&D by Microsoft is $3 billion, cost on inference is $3 billion which makes total operating cost of $6 billion. This makes a total of $46 billion that Microsoft is spending on AI data centers. The second most spendings on AI data centers is by Google, with a total of $33 billion. The total capital expenditure by Google is $29 billion while the operating costs are $4 billion.

• Related: Water Consumption By American Data Centers Jumps To Record High As Environmentalists Warn Of Devastating Consequences

Followed by Google, Meta is spending the third most on AI data centers, with $23 billion total capex, $11 billion on GPUs and other chips while $12 billion on other AI spend. The total operating cost of AI data centers that Meta is spending on is $4 billion and this makes a total of $27 billion that Meta is spending on AI data centers. Amazon is also investing a lot on its AI data centers, with a total of $19 billion. $8 billion are spent on GPUs and other chips, while $8 billion is the other AI spend. The total capital expenditure on AI data centers by Amazon is $16 billion while $3 billion is the total operating cost. Google and Amazon are spending a lot on training their AI models and the training cost for AI models is getting more and more expensive.

• Also read: Data Center Surge: USA Tops Global List with 5,388 Centers, AI Adoption Fuels Growth

The most data centers are owned by Microsoft (300), followed by 215 data centers of Amazon. Microsoft has partnered up with BlackRock to start a $100 billion plan through Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure that will focus on developing AI data centers and provide energy which will support those AI data centers.

Company	Spending on GPUs and Other Chips	Other AI-related Expenses	Total Capital Expenditures	Spending on Training and Research	Spending on Inference	Total Operating Costs
Microsoft	$20 billion	$20 billion	$40 billion	$3 billion	$3 billion	$6 billion
Meta	$11 billion	$12 billion	$23 billion	$2 billion	$2 billion	$4 billion
Google	$14 billion	$15 billion	$29 billion	$3 billion	$1 billion	$4 billion
Amazon	$8 billion	$8 billion	$16 billion	$2 billion	$1 billion	$3 billion

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• New Research Shows ChatGPT Uses Too Much Water to Keep its Data Centers Cool Which Can Have Harmful Effects to Environment

• Mobile Addiction Soars, Americans Check Phones 205 Times Daily, Survey Reveals
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Mobile Addiction Soars, Americans Check Phones 205 Times Daily, Survey Reveals

Mobile phone use has increased and a lot of people need to check their smartphones every five minutes for an update, email or message. But this surge in smartphone use raises serious concerns, similar to the overuse of other technologies. ReviewsOrg conducted a survey to analyze the annual smartphone usage habits of the average American. Talking about the daily basis, the survey shows that an average American checks his phone at least 205 times in a day. Checking every five minutes totals 2.5 months yearly. But how drastic is this year’s growth?

The data from the survey shows that there has been a 42.3% increase in mobile usage since last year. The same survey conducted in 2023 found that people used to check their phones 144 times on average in a day. In the survey conducted in 2024, there were 80.6% respondents who said that they check their phones within 10 minutes after they wake up, while 65.7% admitted to using phones while on the toilet. There were also some respondents who said that they have texted someone even if they were in the same room as them (53.7%) and some respondents also said that they checked their phones while they were on a date (38.1%). 27% of the respondents also said that they use their phones when they are driving.

There were 43% of the respondents who considered themselves as mobile addicts. When some mobile phone users receive a notification, they check it within five minutes (76%). The highest score was of millennials (89.5%) who check notifications within ten minutes of receiving them, followed by Gen-Z and Gen-X (84% each), Boomers (69%) and Silent Generation (53.3%). Unsurprisingly, Gen-Z have the most screen time, with average 6 hours 18 minutes spent on their phones daily, followed by Millennials who spent average 6 hours 2 minutes on their phones every day this year. Generation-X spent an average 4 hours 54 minutes on their phones, followed by Boomers who spent 3 hours 18 minutes on their phones. The only generation with little to none mobile phone use was Silent Generation with an average 1 hour six minutes spent on mobile phones daily. Millennials picked their mobile phones the most with an average 324 times per day.

In addition to being anxious about missing any notifications, 80% of millennials are also anxious about losing their mobile phones, which is way more than other generations.

Read next: Global VR Shipments Decline, Meta and Apple Face Shifts in Consumer Preferences
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Clickbait, Chaos, and Burnout: How This Year Redefined Our Social Media Experience

2024 was a draining year for users who struggled to navigate through many of the popular social media platforms. Some faced incredible challenges while others just couldn’t wrap their heads around what was going on.

It’s clear that the goal of many platforms is to attract the masses but despite knowing this, it wouldn’t be wrong to mention that this realm has transformed into a bizarre beast.

You enter a platform and feel like you’re getting sucked into a stream of material that’s designed to trap people. This includes relentless amounts of shopping ads that you’ve got little to no interest in. It’s safe to say that many including us didn’t have fun.

Let’s take a look at Instagram for instance. You open up that platform and get greeted by ads for bizarre products like bidets. Once you ignore and start scrolling, you’ll see even more alarmingly weird ads about lingerie, shoes, and explicit toys. Most of the sellers are from AliExpress and then you question how you landed up here in the first place.

Soon after that, the misery isn’t over as you’re facing Reels from unknown sources featuring off-target topics. After that, you do see a post or two from your list but then realize that you need to switch off the ‘suggested posts’ feature again which is a must every month. If not, be ready to face the consequences of seeing the most random things getting published on and off.

We won’t lie, we do get distracted more often than not. It could be an adorable cat making cute expressions or a famous chef stirring the pot with another delicious recipe. All in all, we’re in love all over again and forget the misery that brought us here in the first place.

Before we know it, we’re at a popular influencer couple’s page who are trying to make the audience laugh with some of the most bizarre routines. You might even see a woman bombarding herself with makeup but the transformation is so severe that some argue that it’s catfishing and illegal to do this.

We’d like to confirm that this issue isn’t solely on Instagram only but on TikTok as well. The only difference here is that its For You page is more rightly adapted to showing you things that you’ll actually love and not just hate.

Sometimes, procrastination gets you here and all sucked up into something that steals a good few hours when you could have been more productive. Nevertheless, we have to admit that getting caught up in the social media trend isn’t fun anymore.

Some videos aren’t even real and that makes you distrust society even more now than before. There are times we feel we might get trapped while scrolling mindlessly and watching content that we never liked or will like. And it happens so frequently.

It’s no wonder Oxford shared the word for 2024 was brain rot which is the devastating consequence of spending long hours online, watching some stupid things that you shouldn’t be. It’s similar to the word that Australia spoke about called enshittification which explains how apps ruin over time as different firms continue to chase profits.

If we had to sum it up, social media apps were once curated with the idea of promoting connections and friendship. Today, it’s as far away from real human interactions as we are from the moon. Another example is Facebook where you could end up if you’d like to an update from a loved one or people you adore. But even that is now filled with unwanted reels and useless AI slop and low quality click-bait clutter.

Next comes Elon Musk’s controversial X app which fails to hold any of the roots of the old Twitter app. It’s not fun anymore when you’re slammed with politics and propaganda from all directions.

Moving on to Meta's Threads, it’s definitely a better version of X and a hotspot for many who are sick of Musk and his erratic behavior. But it’s causing concern amongst many for uncredited videos and provocative content. There are custom feeds now that feature the chance to explore certain topics but some pages are full of nothing but engagement-bait posts. Another thing that bothers some people is the follow feed for users does not have a default view and no option exists for changing it. Threads, despite its millions of active users, includes few creators or content producers from diverse industries. Similarly, platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, though smaller in user base, give off an "in-crowd" vibe. For many, engaging with these new social networks feels like stepping into a room full of familiar faces where they remain the outsider. Unlike Threads, which may soon introduce ads, neither Bluesky nor Mastodon serves as a thinly veiled shopping platform—at least for now.

To sum it up, social media is not worth it anymore for many who feel we’re reaching that burnout stage of taking in too much. We need someplace that feels more human and inviting, not robotic. Let’s hold a positive mindset for 2025 and hope more change happens but this time, for the good.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: The Future of Social Media: Meta’s AI Personas and the Shift Toward Digital Engagement
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Stop Guessing, Start Knowing: The Social Media Tools You Need for 2025

Keeping track of your performance and campaigns on social media platforms is important to maintain your presence. It helps you in making better decisions for your brand and profile. Being aware of your analytics also allows you to check where you stand in comparison to others.

Many social media analytic tools are available to analyze social media performance. Each one of them offers its own set of features to provide users with better analysis of their social media activity.

For starters it is important to note that various analytics tools offer unique paid features for brands, but newcomers or startups can start with basic built-in tools like Facebook Insights or Instagram Analytics. For more advanced needs in 2025, here are the top social media analytics tools to consider:

HubSpot

HubSpot is the best choice if you are running huge business-related campaigns on social media. On HubSpot, users can conveniently do all types of marketing.

Its features include media management tools, detailed reporting and web traffic.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social can help big companies to lay down their strategies effectively. It offers competitive reports, which show your comparative position on social media. It also offers management tools, detailed reporting and hashtag tracking tools.

Google Analytics

If you are just interested in finding out the traffic inflows to your website, Google Analytics is a good option. The tool provides data that allows users to know what content and which social media platform attract the most traffic. Moreover, its demographic depiction of data allows users to make better decisions.

Keyhole

Keyhole provides analytical data about brand trends. It is a great tool to find out about the perception of people about your product on social media.

Its main features include competitive analysis, social media trends and management tools.

Rival IQ

Use Rival IQ if you want to know about how successful you are on social media and about benchmarks. Plus, Rival IQ provides users with detailed reporting, competitive analysis and social listening tools.

Buffer

Buffer provides not only social media management/scheduling tools, but also paid versus organic reports, detailed reporting and white label reports. Social teams focusing on content management should prefer Buffer app to others. One thing that hasn’t changed about Buffer is that their free plan still works like a charm.

Hootsuite

Almost all types of businesses employ Hootsuite for analysis of their social media presence. The tool offers management tools, detailed reporting and competitor reporting. Moreover, it also allows repurposing of top-performing posts on the platforms. A downside of this tool is the lack of a free tier for extended basic testing.

Brandwatch

It is a social media and influencer marketing tool that allows users to engage at the speed of social. It provides great social listening tools, benchmarks and marketing tools.

Sendible

Sendible has a user-friendly dashboard. The tool offers management tools, automatic postings and tracking of multiple campaigns.

SEMRush Social

SEMRush Social is used across all major social media platforms for social media management and analytics. This tool also offers in-app social postings.

Tailwind

Tailwind is specially designed for visual-focused platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. It provides management tools as well as detailed reporting about your social media performance.

Selecting the right social media analytics tool is key to refining your strategy, optimizing performance, and staying ahead of competitors. Whether you're a startup using built-in tools or an established brand leveraging advanced analytics, the insights gained will help you make data-driven decisions for sustained growth.

Read next: Social Media Research Dominates Buying Decisions as TikTok Becomes Top Platform for Product Discovery
by Ehtasham Ahmad via Digital Information World

Global VR Shipments Decline, Meta and Apple Face Shifts in Consumer Preferences

According to Counterpoint's Global Extended Reality (AR/VR) Headset Model Tracker, the global VR headset shipment has declined 4% YoY and 16% QoQ in Q3 of 2024. Tethered VR headset segment saw a big drop in Q3 2024 at 50% and it is the primary reason for decline of VR headset shipment this quarter. Despite the decline, Meta is still dominating the global VR market at 65 shares this quarter, but it still saw some decrease in its shipments as compared to previous quarters. The reason was decrease in sales of Meta Quest 3 because consumers wanted to buy a cheaper headset, Meta Quest 3S.

Apple Vision Pro saw a double growth in its shipments because it was launched in Europe, China and APAC. But there are predictions that Apple is going to see a decline in shipments of Apple Vision Pro in Q4 2024. In H2 2024, total shipments of Apple can be 90% international sales. Now we have to see once the data gets shared. Pico also released its latest Pico 4 Ultra in Europe and China and this helped in the 6% QoQ growth of this headset, but there was a 2% decrease YoY in global shipments of the same model. China was really anticipating Pico 4 Ultra because it can be used in entertainment projects and large-space VR tourism.

There was a 29% decrease in Sony’s YoY shipments but when its PC adapter launched, its QoQ shipments increased because of the hype around this VR model and the promotional campaigns in Europe and North America. DPVR also saw a good growth with 14% QoQ increase and 67% YoY increase. Shipments of VR headsets that had MR capabilities increased to 80% from just 6% in Q3 2023. It is also expected that it can increase to 90% in Q4 2024.

Many VR companies are testing different features on their latest headsets to stand out in the market, with Apple also testing OLED displays on its Vision headset. It will be cost effective too, but won't make the experience for users bad. There are some industry advancements in Snap’s Spectacle’ 24 AR glasses and Meta’s Orion AR glasses. AR+AI smart glasses are going to see some growth in late 2024, which will gain momentum in 2025. Many of the companies are now working on AR+AI glasses and we are sure that we'll see some new products within next year.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World