In brief: A lot of people worry about teens spending too much time online, and the latest survey from the Pew Research Center appears to justify those concerns. Nearly half of all the teenage participants said they're online almost constantly, with YouTube still the most popular platform. Former Twitter site X has been rapidly losing young users, while WhatsApp has been gaining them.
Almost 1,400 teens aged 13 to 17 took part in the survey between September and October. The major takeaway, if not a particularly surprising one, is that the number of teens who reported being online almost constantly keeps rising, from just a quarter a decade ago to almost half today. Virtually all of those surveyed, 96%, said they use the internet daily.
Looking at individual platforms, YouTube remains the most popular among teens, despite its number of users declining from 95% in 2022 to 90%.
TikTok is the second most-popular app, with 63% of teens saying they use it.
It turns out that teen girls are much more likely to be using TikTok almost constantly than boys, whereas the roles are reversed for YouTube, which is preferred by males.
Despite being used by 170 million Americans, TikTok might not be available in the US much longer. The US Court of Appeals recently dismissed TikTok's appeal against a law requiring it be sold to new owners by January 19 or be shut down in the United States.
Going back to the survey, Instagram sits behind TikTok in third place (61%) having seen its user share increase from last year, while Snapchat is in fourth place with 55%.
Back in 2014-2015, Facebook was hugely popular among teens, with 71% saying they used the social network. But Zuckerberg's platform has long been labeled as an app for "old people," leading to an exodus of teens. However, Facebook has managed to retain its 32% share of teen users for the past two years.
Another Meta property, WhatsApp, has seen its popularity increase among teens since 2022, moving from 17% to 23%. It was the only app to have experienced an increase in users over the last two years. It seems large group chats and messaging services are starting to replace social media as the apps of choice among teens.
Another social media app (or news app, as it likes to call itself) that is losing teen users is X. A decade ago, Twitter, as it still was then, was used by 33% of teenagers. It's now down to 17%, having fallen 5% in the last two years.
The second-lowest app on the list is Reddit, used by just 14% of teens. That's still more than double the 6% that use Threads, which launched in July last year.
The world is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact that being online too much can have on teens – Australia recently banned individuals under the age of 16 from using social media. The Pew survey notes that 95% of teenagers have a smartphone, while 88% have a desktop/laptop at home.
Masthead: Yunus Tuğ
Teens abandon X and Facebook as TikTok and WhatsApp gain momentum, report
