Survey results show that half of young people in the United States are 'almost always online' - what social media and platforms do young people use?



The American think tank

Pew Research Center has released a survey report summarizing the usage trends of social media and online platforms among American youth aged 13 to 17. The report reveals that nearly half of young people say they are 'almost always online,' and that YouTube remains very popular.

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024 | Pew Research Center
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/

Teens Spent Less Time on the Top Social Apps This Year, With Two Exceptions | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/news/teens-spent-less-time-on-the-top-social-apps-this-year-with-two-exceptions

Nearly half of US teens are online almost constantly, Pew study finds | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/12/nearly-half-of-us-teens-are-online-almost-constantly-pew-study-finds/

Concerns about young people's use of social media have grown in recent years, with Australia introducing a bill to ban social media use by people under the age of 16 and Meta announcing a temporary ban on teens using Instagram.

In the midst of this, the Pew Research Center conducted an online survey of 1,391 young people aged 13 to 17 living in the United States from September 18 to October 10, 2024. The graph below shows the percentage of young people who answered 'almost always online' by race, showing that 46% of all American young people, 37% of white young people, 53% of black young people, and 58% of Hispanic young people use the Internet almost always.



Looking at the different social media platforms, 90% of young people use YouTube, followed by TikTok at 63%, Instagram at 61%, Snapchat at 55%, Facebook at 32%, WhatsApp at 23%, X (formerly Twitter) at 17%, Reddit at 14%, and Threads at 6%.

The graph below shows the percentage of young people using the various social media platforms asked about in the survey by survey year. We can see that the percentage using Facebook has dropped significantly from 71% in 2014-15 to 32% in 2024, and the percentage using X has also dropped from 33% to 17% over the same period. Meanwhile, Snapchat has increased from 41% to 55% over the same period, and Instagram has increased from 52% to 61%.



The survey also asked how often people use the five platforms YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. As a result, 73% of young people watch YouTube every day, about 60% access TikTok every day, and about 50% use Instagram and Snapchat every day. On the other hand, only about 20% of young people use Facebook every day.

The graph below shows the percentage of young people who use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook every day, with light blue representing the percentage who 'access about once a day,' blue representing the percentage who 'access several times a day,' and dark blue representing the percentage who 'access almost always.' Looking at the five platforms as a whole, about one-third of young people use at least one of these almost always.



The graph below shows the percentage of young people who use TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook 'almost always' by gender. It can be seen that more women than men use TikTok almost always, while more men use YouTube almost always.



Below is a graph showing the percentage of devices by which young people access the Internet. Multiple answers are possible, with 95% using smartphones, 88% using desktop/laptop PCs, 83% using game consoles, and 70% using tablets.



In addition, according to a survey on SNS usage rates conducted by NTT Docomo Mobile Society Research Institute in January 2024, the percentage of teenagers using LINE was 92.1%, Instagram was 78.7%, X was 72.9%, TikTok was 55%, Threads was 17.9%, and Facebook was 13.4%.

[Services] Teenagers' social media: LINE 90%, Instagram 80%, TikTok 60%, Threads 20%: TikTok usage rate increases in 4 years (April 22, 2024) | Report | NTT Docomo Mobile Society Research Institute
https://www.moba-ken.jp/project/service/20240422.html

in Mobile,   Web Service, Posted by log1h_ik