Many people worry that teenagers are spending too much time online, and a new survey from the Pew Research Center seems to prove that these concerns are justified. Nearly half of teen participants said they go online almost constantly, with YouTube remaining the most popular platform. The former Twitter site X is rapidly losing teenage users, while WhatsApp continues to gain users.
Nearly 1,400 teenagers aged 13 to 17 participated in the survey between September and October. One major takeaway, if not particularly surprising, is that the number of teenagers who report being online almost constantly is growing, from a quarter a decade ago to nearly half now. Nearly all respondents (96%) said they use the Internet every day.
Looking at individual platforms, YouTube remains the most popular platform among teenagers, although its user base has dropped to 90% from 95% in 2022.
TikTok is the second most popular app, with 63% of teens saying they use it.
It turns out that teenage girls use TikTok almost more often than boys, while the opposite is true for YouTube, with men using it more often.
Although 170 million Americans use TikTok, TikTok may not be used in the United States for long. A U.S. appeals court recently rejected TikTok’s appeal against a law that would have required TikTok to be sold to a new owner by January 19 or shut down in the United States.
The survey shows that the proportion of Instagram users has increased compared with last year, ranking third after TikTok (61%), and Snapchat ranked fourth with 55%.
Back in 2014-2015, Facebook was hugely popular among teenagers, with 71% saying they had used the social network. But Zuckerberg's platform has long been labeled an "app for the elderly," leading to an exodus of teenage users. However, Facebook has managed to retain 32% of its teenage user base over the past two years.
Another Meta property, WhatsApp, has seen an increase in popularity among teens since 2022, rising from 17% to 23%. It is the only app that has seen growth in user numbers over the past two years. Large group chats and messaging services appear to be starting to replace social media as the go-to app for teenagers.
Another social media app (or news app, as it likes to call itself) that is losing teenage users is X. Now, its usage is down to 17%, down 5% over the past two years.
The second-lowest ranked app is Reddit, used by only 14% of teens. This is more than double the 6% usage rate of Threads, which was launched last July.
The world is increasingly concerned about the impact of too much online use on teenagers - Australia recently banned social media for under-16s. According to the Pew survey, 95% of teenagers own a smartphone, and 88% of teenagers have a desktop/laptop computer at home.