Facebook’s declining popularity among younger demographics is widely known by now. Still, a recent study just revealed how far the once all-encompassing social media platform has fallen from grace in teens’ eyes. According to the Pew Research Center’s new “Teens, Social Media and Technology” report surveying internet users aged 13-17, only about 32 percent of responders say they ever use Facebook. That’s a well over 50-percent decline from 2014-15’s estimated 71-percent usage.
Meanwhile, TikTok remains the current social media platform to beat for Gen Z, with 67 percent of responders claiming to visit the app frequently. Two other social media platforms—Instagram and Snapchat—also saw sizable increases over the past eight years. Another result gleaned from the study shows that YouTube is by far the website teens utilize most, with 95 percent of those surveyed saying they frequent the platform.
According to the report, the demographics among teenagers on social media have also shifted significantly. “For example, teen boys are more likely than teen girls to say they use YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit, whereas teen girls are more likely than teen boys to use TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat,” reads the study. “In addition, higher shares of Black and Hispanic teens report using TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp compared with White teens.”
Unsurprisingly, all this social media usage has generated some undesirable byproducts. For example, of the 95 percent of teens visiting YouTube, one in five of them say they use it “almost constantly,” while a little over half of the survey takers say they’d have difficulty giving up their favorite social media haunts for good. Perhaps this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise— access to smartphones skyrocketed for the age group since Pew last surveyed the landscape—from 72- to 95 percent of teens.
