Teenagers are using social media at unprecedented rates, with the majority using YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. Approximately half of teens say they are online “almost constantly,” although Snapchat slightly surpassed Instagram this year, according to a new Pew Research Center survey on teens and technology.
Key Facts
46% of teenagers aged 13 to 17 said they are online “almost constantly,” which is the same percentage as last year, even though the number has nearly doubled since 2014, when only 24% of teens said they were online “almost constantly.”
There was no significant change in social media usage between this year and last year, as YouTube surpassed TikTok as the most used social media platform, with 93% and 63% of teens using them, respectively.
In 2023, Snapchat surpassed Instagram, with 60% of teens stating they use Snapchat and 59% using Instagram, compared to 62% using Instagram and 59% using Snapchat last year, and 52% using Instagram and only 41% using Snapchat between 2014 and 2015.
Social media usage varies slightly by gender, with teenage girls more likely to use TikTok and Snapchat continuously compared to boys, although the use of YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook continuously is fairly similar between genders, according to the Pew report.
Pew conducted a survey of nearly 1,500 teens in September and October, with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
Surprising Facts
The BeReal platform, the newest social media platform included in the Pew survey, is the only platform where white teens use it more than Black or Hispanic teens. TikTok was used by 80% of Black teens, while it was used by 70% of Hispanic teens and about 60% of white teens, with more Black teens reporting usage of X, formerly known as Twitter, than white or Hispanic teens.
Big Number
58%, this is the number of teens using TikTok daily. Among them, 17% described their use of TikTok as “almost constant,” and 32% said they use it several times a day. Hispanic teens are the most likely to use TikTok continuously, with nearly one in three Hispanic teens saying they are on the app almost constantly, compared to one in five Black teens and one in ten white teens.
Sidebar
Facebook no longer dominates social media for teenagers. Between 2014 and 2015, 71% of teens used Facebook compared to 33% who report using it now. The same can be said for X, formerly known as Twitter, which saw usage drop from 33% to 20% during the same time period. However, teens in low-income households use Facebook more than their peers: 45% of teens in households earning less than $30,000 annually reported using Facebook, compared to 27% of those in households earning at least $75,000 annually. Instagram, owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, remains widely popular. Instagram, along with most major social media platforms, has faced a wave of criticism in recent years regarding how it protects teen users.
Further Reading
Pew Research Center: Internet and Teen Science and Technology Social Media 2023. The Hill: Nearly half of teens say they are online “constantly”: Survey
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