Social media use is widespread in the United States, but one service from China is growing faster than any other among American adults. According to a recent 2023 Pew Research Center survey, YouTube remains by far the largest and most widely used online platform among U.S. adults. About 8 in 10 adults surveyed (83%) said they have used the Google-owned video-sharing site, far more than the 68% who use Facebook.
Meta-owned Instagram is the third most popular social platform, used by nearly half (47%) of U.S. adults. The usage rates of Pinterest, TikTok and LinkedIn are all at one-third or less, but TikTok’s situation is special.
China's ByteDance Inc.'s TikTok usage has grown 12 percentage points since 2021. Most other platforms Pew asked about, including YouTube and Facebook, saw small or no growth during the same period. Other platforms, like X, have seen slight declines in usage over the past few years.
TikTok isn’t just popular with adults, in fact, it may be even more popular with young people.
In September, a study from Common Sense Media and the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital found that teenagers spend an average of more than four hours a day on their smartphones, with most of that time spent on one app: TikTok. YouTube ranks second among teens, accounting for nearly 20% of daily usage time.
Pew data shows TikTok is most popular among Hispanic adults, with women using the platform at a higher rate than men (40% vs. 25%).
The survey also found that people of different age groups have different preferences for social media. Data shows that 62% of people aged 18 to 29 use TikTok, while only 10% of people aged 65 and above use TikTok. In fact, Facebook and YouTube are the only two platforms used by the majority of people across all age groups.