Here are several ways you can collect social media data without relying on a scraper:
Official APIs. Some social media platforms provide official APIs that allow developers to access data from the platform. These APIs can be used to collect data such as user profiles, comments, and posts.
Surveys and polls. You can collect information such as demographics, opinions, and behaviors by asking social media users to participate in surveys and polls.
Data partnerships. Certain social media platforms have data partnerships with third-party companies that allow them to access data from the platform.
Gathering data manually. You can always simply copy and paste data from social media platforms by hand. This is arguably the most time-consuming and labor-intensive option.
Buying pre-made datasets. Some companies sell datasets that have already been collected from social media platforms.
In the end, scraping social media platforms with a dedicated tool is more convenient, gives you more freedom, and provides results faster than any other method.