Research Focus: This article investigates how social media platforms profit billions from user-generated content while users receive nothing, examines the time investment required, analyzes platform revenue and user statistics, and exposes the disconnect between what CEOs do versus what they push others to do.
Introduction: The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Time
You spend 2 hours and 21 minutes on social media every day.
That’s the global average in 2025.
If you’re a Muslimah with a business, you’re probably spending even more: creating short form content, engaging with posts, responding to comments, filming reels, posting stories, checking analytics, doom scrolling for “inspiration.”
And for what?
While you invest hours of your life creating content, exposing yourself, your children, your lifestyle, someone else is making billions.
Not you. Them.
Welcome to modern day slavery, where the chains are invisible but the control is absolute.
The Numbers: Who’s Really Profiting?
Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads)
2024 Revenue: $164.5 billion
2024 Advertising Revenue: $160 billion
Q4 2024 Revenue: $48.39 billion (21% increase year over year)
Q4 2024 Net Income: $20.84 billion
Market Capitalization: $1.93 trillion (as of August 2025)
Users Creating This Wealth:
- 3.35 billion daily active users across Meta’s platforms (December 2024)
- 3.98 billion monthly active users
- Facebook: 3.07 billion monthly active users
- Instagram: 3 billion monthly active users (Q3 2025)
- WhatsApp: 2 billion monthly active users
How Much Time Are You Giving Them?
- Facebook: 30 minutes per day average
- Instagram: 33 minutes per day average
- WhatsApp: 28 minutes per day average
Additional Revenue Streams:
- Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue ($16 billion) would come from scam ads and banned goods
- They show users an estimated 15 billion “higher risk” scam ads per day
Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth: Over $230 billion (ranked 2nd richest person globally as of March 2025)
TikTok
2024 Revenue: $14.15 billion
Projected 2025 Ad Revenue: $33.1 billion
Users Creating This Wealth:
- Over 1.5 billion monthly active users
- 62% of users are ages 10 to 29
How Much Time Are You Giving Them?
- Average: 55 to 59 minutes per day
- Monthly: 34 hours and 15 minutes per user
- In the US: 43 hours 53 minutes monthly (2024)
TikTok leads all platforms in time spent per user, despite having fewer total users than Facebook or Instagram.
YouTube (Google/Alphabet)
Users:
- Over 2 billion monthly active users
How Much Time Are You Giving Them?
- Average: 49 to 60 minutes per day
- Monthly: Over 10 trillion minutes globally
- That’s more than twice as much total user time as TikTok
The Real Cost: Your Life in Hours
The Global Picture
Average time spent on social media per day (2025): 2 hours 21 minutes (141 minutes)
That’s:
- 16 hours 27 minutes per week
- 71 hours per month
- 852 hours per year
- 35.5 DAYS of your life every year
But if you’re a teen or young adult:
- US teens (13 to 19): 4.8 hours per day
- Teen girls: 5.3 hours per day
- Ages 18 to 24: 3 hours per day (186 minutes)
If you’re in certain countries:
- Brazil: 3 hours 49 minutes per day
- Kenya: 4 hours 13 minutes per day
- Philippines: 3 hours 34 minutes per day
- Nigeria: 3.5+ hours per day
The Lifetime Calculation
If you’re 10 years old today and spend the average amount of time on social media:
You will spend 3.4 million minutes on social media in your lifetime.
That’s 6 years and 8 months of your life.
Not sleeping. Not eating. Not praying. Not with your family.
Just scrolling.
The Slavery Analogy: Why It Fits
Traditional Slavery
- Labor: Forced to work without pay
- Ownership: Master owns the slave’s output
- Control: Physical chains, no freedom to leave
- Benefit: Master profits, slave gets survival
Modern Social Media Slavery
- Labor: You create content for free (posts, photos, videos, engagement)
- Ownership: Platform owns all your content (read the terms of service)
- Control: Psychological addiction, algorithmic manipulation, FOMO
- Benefit: Platform makes billions, you get “likes”
The difference? You volunteered for this.
But just because the chains are invisible doesn’t mean they’re not real.
How the System Works: Conditioning & Control
1. They Condition You to Create
Social media platforms have conditioned millions of people to become free content creators.
The process:
- Make it easy to post (one click sharing)
- Give you instant dopamine (likes, comments, shares)
- Show you others getting attention (FOMO)
- Make you feel like you need to “stay relevant”
- Convince you that “consistency” is key
- Tell you to “show up” every day
The result: Billions of people spending hours creating content that the platform owns and profits from.
You get nothing except the illusion of connection and visibility.
2. Short Form Content: Maximum Labor, Minimum Value
The rise of short form content (Reels, TikToks, Shorts, Stories) is the most insidious development.
Why?
Because it has an extremely short lifespan but requires significant time and effort to create.
The Economics:
- You spend 30 minutes to 2 hours creating a 30 second reel
- It gets views for maybe 24 to 48 hours
- Then it’s buried by the algorithm
- You need to create another one tomorrow
- And another
- And another
- Forever
Meanwhile:
- TikTok made $14.15 billion in 2024
- Instagram Reels is rapidly growing (projected to surpass Stories revenue)
- YouTube Shorts is capturing massive watch time
Who’s winning?
Not you.
3. The Engagement Trap
They’ve convinced you that “engagement” is valuable.
“You need to:
- Comment on other people’s posts
- Reply to DMs
- Respond to every comment
- Build relationships
- Network
- Stay visible”
Translation: Spend more time on our platform for free so we can show you more ads and collect more data about you to sell to advertisers.
The truth: All that “engagement” benefits the platform, not you. They’re keeping you scrolling, clicking, interacting, FOR THEM.
4. Exposing Yourself & Your Family
And here’s where it gets worse for Muslim women.
Sisters are exposing themselves on these platforms:
- Their faces (when many wouldn’t show them in public)
- Their bodies (even hijabis filming themselves in ways they wouldn’t allow in person)
- Their homes
- Their children
- Their lifestyles
- Their private moments
All to “build a brand.” All to “grow an audience.” All to “be seen.”
And for what?
So Mark Zuckerberg can make another billion.
The CEO Disconnect: Do What I Say, Not What I Do
What They Push You To Do:
- “Be consistent!” (Post every day, multiple times)
- “Show up authentically!” (Share your life, be vulnerable)
- “Engage with your community!” (Spend hours commenting and DMing)
- “Use video!” (Film yourself constantly)
- “Tell your story!” (Expose your personal life)
- “Build your personal brand!” (Make yourself the product)
What the CEOs Actually Do:
Mark Zuckerberg (Meta):
- Net worth: $230+ billion
- Has a team managing his social media presence
- Rarely posts personal content
- Controls his image carefully
- Spends his time building empires, not scrolling Instagram
- Lives in massive estates with extreme privacy
Shou Zi Chew (TikTok CEO):
- Doesn’t have a public TikTok account
- Keeps his personal life extremely private
- Focuses on business strategy, not content creation
The Pattern:
They want YOU on the platform creating, engaging, scrolling.
They are NOT on the platform doing the same.
They understand the game. You’re the product. Your attention is what they’re selling.
The Corporate Plan: Keep Them Scrolling
The Business Model
Social media companies have one goal: Keep users on the platform as long as possible.
Why?
- More time = more ads shown
- More ads = more revenue
- More engagement = more data collected
- More data = better ad targeting = even more revenue
How They Do It:
- Algorithmic manipulation: Show you content designed to trigger emotion (anger, envy, curiosity)
- Infinite scroll: No natural stopping point
- Variable rewards: Sometimes you get interesting content, sometimes not (like a slot machine)
- FOMO mechanics: “Everyone’s posting, you should too”
- Social comparison: Constant exposure to others’ curated lives
- Push notifications: Bring you back when you leave
The Result:
You’re not using social media. Social media is using you.
The Impact: What It’s Taking From You
1. Your Time
852 hours per year that could be spent:
- Reading Qur’an (if you read 1 page per day, that’s only 30 minutes per year)
- Praying voluntary prayers
- Spending quality time with family
- Learning beneficial knowledge
- Building real skills
- Exercising
- Resting
But instead, you’re scrolling.
2. Your Mental Health
Research consistently links excessive social media use with:
- Increased anxiety
- Depression
- Sleep disruption
- Low self esteem
- Body image issues
- Comparison and envy
- Reduced attention span
- Impulsivity
- Digital dependency
“TikTok brain”: A term coined by pediatric experts describing cognitive fatigue and mood instability from prolonged video consumption.
31% of time spent on social media stems from “self control problems” (American Economic Review, 2022).
You’re not weak willed. The platform is designed to manipulate you.
3. Your Remembrance of Allah
How many times have you:
- Picked up your phone to “quickly check” something
- Ended up scrolling for an hour
- Missed prayer time
- Delayed prayer because you were mid scroll
- Felt anxious if you couldn’t check your phone
Social media takes you away from remembering Allah in the best of ways.
Allah says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ
“O you who have believed, let not your wealth and your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah.” (Surah Al Munafiqun, 63:9)
If wealth and children can distract us, what about a device designed to distract us?
4. Your Privacy & Modesty
You’re giving away what you should be protecting:
- Your image
- Your children’s images
- Your home
- Your daily life
- Your thoughts
- Your location
- Your habits
- Your data
And once it’s online, you don’t control it anymore.
The platform owns it. Forever.
The Business Trap: “I Need Social Media for My Business”
This is the biggest lie Muslim entrepreneurs have been sold.
They say: “If you want to grow your business, you NEED to be on social media.”
The truth: Social media is ONE option for business growth. It’s not the only option, and for many, it’s not even the best option.
What They Don’t Tell You:
1. Organic Reach is Dead
Platforms have systematically killed organic reach to force you to pay for ads.
- Your posts reach 5 to 10% of your followers
- To reach more, you need to pay
- Or create more content (give them more free labor)
2. You Don’t Own Your Audience
- Platform can shut down your account tomorrow
- Algorithm changes can tank your reach
- You’re building on rented land
3. There Are Better Ways to Grow
Ways Muslim women have built successful businesses WITHOUT social media:
- Email lists (you own the list)
- Networking (real relationships, not digital ones)
- Referrals (word of mouth from satisfied clients)
- Collaborations (partnering with organizations and other businesses)
- Direct outreach (emailing potential clients or partners)
- Speaking engagements (workshops, webinars, conferences)
- SEO & Website (people find you through Google)
- Community involvement (serving your local community)
All of these build REAL businesses with REAL relationships.
Not vanity metrics.
The Alternative: Break Free
1. Recognize the Trap
You’ve been conditioned to believe you need social media.
You don’t.
What you need is:
- A way to reach your ideal clients
- A way to serve them with excellence
- A way to build trust and credibility
- A way to earn halal income
Social media is ONE option for these things. Not the ONLY option.
2. Calculate the Real Cost
Exercise:
How much time do you spend on social media per day?
Multiply by 365 days.
That’s how many hours per year.
Now ask yourself: What is my time worth?
If your time is worth $50/hour and you spend 2 hours per day on social media:
- That’s $100/day
- $3,000/month
- $36,000/year in value you’re giving away FOR FREE
Is that really the best use of your time?
3. Reclaim Your Time
If you must use social media for business:
- Set strict time limits (30 minutes per day MAXIMUM)
- Batch your content (create 1 month of content in one sitting)
- Schedule posts (use tools to auto post)
- Turn off notifications (all of them)
- Delete apps from phone (access only via desktop at scheduled times)
- Never scroll (post and leave)
- Measure ROI (if it’s not generating income, stop)
Better yet:
- Build an email list
- Create a website
- Focus on direct outreach
- Network in real life
- Serve your community
- Let your excellence speak
4. Protect What Matters
Your time is finite.
Your attention is valuable.
Your modesty is precious.
Your remembrance of Allah is essential.
Don’t give these things away to billionaires who don’t care about you.
Conclusion: Who’s Really Winning?
Meta made $164.5 billion in 2024.
Mark Zuckerberg is worth $230+ billion.
TikTok is projected to make $33.1 billion in 2025.
YouTube commands over 10 trillion minutes of watch time per month.
And you?
You got some likes. Maybe a few followers. Perhaps a handful of clients (who you could have reached other ways).
But you gave away:
- Thousands of hours of your life
- Your mental health
- Your peace of mind
- Your privacy
- Your time with Allah
- Your time with family
Was it worth it?
The Choice Is Yours
Social media is modern day slavery where:
- You work for free
- They profit in billions
- You’re conditioned to keep creating
- They own everything you produce
- You can’t seem to stop
But unlike traditional slavery, you can walk away.
You can choose differently.
You can build your business without selling your soul (and your time) to these platforms.
You can serve your clients with excellence without exposing yourself online.
You can succeed without becoming a slave to the algorithm.
The question is: Will you?
Resources & Next Steps
At 7FigureMuslimah, we provide alternatives:
- Wholesome Brand™: Build a business presence without personal branding or social media exposure
- MODEST Marketing: Grow your business ethically without platform dependency
- Direct Outreach Strategies: Network and build partnerships offline
- Email Marketing: Own your audience, not rent it from Meta
Learn more: www.7figuremuslimah.com
Join Baseerah Coaching Academy: Learn to coach and build a practice without relying on social media slavery.
www.baseerahcoachingacademy.com
Final Thought
They say: “You need to be on social media to succeed.”
We say: “You need to be free to succeed.”
May Allah guide us to use our time in ways that please Him and benefit us in this life and the next.
آمين
Sources:
- Meta Platforms financial reports (Q4 2024, Full Year 2024)
- Statista: Global social media usage statistics
- DataReportal & Global WebIndex: Daily time spent on social media (2025)
- Gallup: Teen social media usage study (2023)
- American Economic Review: Digital addiction research (2022)
- Business of Apps: Instagram and TikTok statistics
- Reuters: Meta scam ads investigation (2024)
About 7FigureMuslimah: We expose problematic practices in online business and provide halal alternatives rooted in Qur’aan and Sunnah. This includes helping Muslims break free from social media dependency and build sustainable businesses through ethical, effective methods.
Share this article with any Muslimah who’s trapped in the social media cycle. She needs to know there’s another way.