Social media platforms have experienced significant growth in their user base, especially in the post-Covid pandemic era. As an example, user registrations on the TikTok platform, which gained popularity during the Covid-19 lockdown, surged from 100 million in 2017 to staggering 1.7 billion in 2024, with 1.1 billion monthly active users (Reference: DemandSage). Additionally, users spend an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes on social media apps every day. It’s surprising that India leads in two key categories – the average number of social media apps used, which is 8.7, and social media’s share of internet use, accounting for 44% (Reference: DataReportal).

What does this refer to in terms of climate impact?

In 2021, Statista published data indicating that TikTok has the highest environmental impact at 2.6 gEqCO2 per minute, while YouTube has the least impact at 0.46 gEqCO2 per minute, and Facebook, the most popular social media platform, falls in between with 0.79 gEqCO2 per minute. While these values seems less, the cumulative effect can be damaging. These emission values are primarily attributed to energy consumption for powering data centers, internet usage, and charging mobile devices/laptops. GREENSPECTOR conducted an interesting study on how user behaviors, such as posting multimedia vs. text and using dark mode vs. light mode, can impact these emissions values.

Way Forward & Positive Initiatives:

While a reduction in the volume of data is less likely to happen in the future, addressing this challenge requires a multi-dimensional approach.

Switching to Renewable Energy Sources:

A significant stride was made by Meta in transforming their global operations to rely entirely on renewable energy sources. Meta achieved this goal by 2018. YouTube is also committed to utilizing 100% renewable energy sources. Both Meta and Google incorporate the use of ambient cool air to manage the heat generated by their server infrastructure

Mindful Posting and Sharing Practices:

Being mindful of what we post and share can contribute to reducing environmental impact. This includes limiting unnecessary thank-you emails, prioritizing text updates over multimedia updates, and streaming videos on Wi-Fi. A key question to consider is whether we use these apps for sharing genuine updates about ourselves or simply to browse the feed. (Greenspector)

Community Collaboration Initiatives:

Encouraging collaborative initiatives for best practices is crucial. Projects such as the 24/7 Carbon-free Energy Compact and the Open Compute Project Foundation, supported by large tech companies, focus on redesigning hardware infrastructure to be more energy-efficient and driving innovations. (International Energy Agency (IEA))

#SocialMediaImpact #GreenDataCenters

#CarbonFreeEnergy #OpenCompute #TechForGood #DigitalFootprint

Link to Meta’s video on journey towards 100% renewable energy source https://www.facebook.com/Engineering/videos/10154759865667200/?ref=embed_video&t=232

P.S. The content was first posted on my LinkedIn and later added here.