(Drew Angerer/Getty Images News via Getty Images)
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images News via Getty Images)

For the latest survey data on social media and messaging app utilise among adults, come across "Social Media Use in 2021. "

Until recently, Facebook
had dominated the social media landscape among America'due south youth – but information technology is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, co-ordinate to a new Pew Inquiry Middle survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.South. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.

This shift in teens' social media utilize is just one case of how the technology landscape for young people has evolved since the Centre'due south final survey of teens and applied science use in 2014-2015. Virtually notably, smartphone ownership has become a almost ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens at present study they have a smartphone or admission to ane. These mobile connections are in plough fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-abiding basis.

The survey likewise finds there is no clear consensus among teens nigh the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as generally positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative.

These are some of the chief findings from the Heart's survey of U.South. teens conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the study, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17.

Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform among teens

The social media landscape in which teens reside looks markedly different than information technology did every bit recently as three years ago. In the Heart'due south 2014-2015 survey of teen social media use, 71% of teens reported beingness Facebook users. No other platform was used by a clear majority of teens at the fourth dimension: Around one-half (52%) of teens said they used Instagram, while 41% reported using Snapchat.

In 2018, three online platforms other than Facebook – YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat – are used past sizable majorities of this age group. Meanwhile, 51% of teens at present say they utilize Facebook. The shares of teens who utilise Twitter and Tumblr are largely comparable to the shares who did and so in the 2014-2015 survey.

For the most office, teens tend to apply similar platforms regardless of their demographic characteristics, but at that place are exceptions. Notably, lower-income teens are more likely to gravitate toward Facebook than those from college-income households – a trend consistent with previous Center surveys. Seven-in-10 teens living in households earning less than $30,000 a yr say they use Facebook, compared with 36% whose annual family income is $75,000 or more. (For details on social media platform use by different demographic groups, see Appendix A.)

Information technology is of import to note in that location were some changes in question wording between Pew Research Center's 2014-2015 and 2018 surveys of teen social media use. YouTube and Reddit were not included every bit options in the 2014-2015 survey simply were included in the current survey. In add-on, the 2014-2015 survey required respondents to provide an explicit response for whether or not they used each platform, while the 2018 survey presented respondents with a listing of sites and allowed them to select the ones they apply.1 Even then, it is clear the social media environment today revolves less effectually a unmarried platform than information technology did three years ago.two

When it comes to which i of these online platforms teens use the well-nigh, roughly one-third say they visit Snapchat (35%) or YouTube (32%) most frequently, while 15% say the same of Instagram. By comparison, 10% of teens say Facebook is their almost-used online platform, and even fewer cite Twitter, Reddit or Tumblr as the site they visit well-nigh often.

Again, lower-income teens are far more likely than those from higher income households to say Facebook is the online platform they utilize near often (22% vs. 4%). There are also some differences related to gender and to race and ethnicity when it comes to teens' most-used sites. Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most often (42% vs. 29%), while boys are more inclined than girls to identify YouTube every bit their go-to platform (39% vs. 25%). Additionally, white teens (41%) are more likely than Hispanic (29%) or black (23%) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they apply well-nigh often, while black teens are more likely than whites to place Facebook as their most used site (26% vs. 7%).

Despite the nearly ubiquitous presence of social media in their lives, at that place is no clear consensus among teens about these platforms' ultimate impact on people their age. A plurality of teens (45%) believe social media has a neither positive nor negative issue on people their age. Meanwhile, roughly iii-in-ten teens (31%) say social media has had a mostly positive impact, while 24% describe its event as mostly negative.

Given the opportunity to explain their views in their own words, teens who say social media has had a mostly positive consequence tended to stress issues related to connectivity and connection with others. Some 40% of these respondents said that social media has had a positive bear upon because it helps them keep in touch and interact with others. Many of these responses emphasize how social media has fabricated it easier to communicate with family and friends and to connect with new people:

"I call up social media accept a positive consequence because it lets yous talk to family members far abroad." (Girl, age 14)

"I feel that social media tin brand people my historic period experience less lonely or solitary. It creates a space where you can collaborate with people." (Girl, age 15)

"It enables people to connect with friends easily and be able to brand new friends as well." (Boy, age 15)

Others in this grouping cite the greater admission to news and information that social media facilitates (16%), or being able to connect with people who share similar interests (15%):

"My mom had to get a ride to the library to go what I have in my paw all the time. She reminds me of that a lot." (Girl, age xiv)

"It has given many kids my age an outlet to express their opinions and emotions, and connect with people who feel the same fashion." (Girl, age 15)

Smaller shares argue that social media is a skilful venue for amusement (9%), that it offers a infinite for self-expression (7%) or that information technology allows teens to get support from others (5%) or to larn new things in full general (iv%).

"Because a lot of things created or made can spread joy." (Boy, age 17)

"[Social media] allows us to communicate freely and see what everyone else is doing. [It] gives us a vocalism that can attain many people." (Boy, age 15)

"We can connect easier with people from unlike places and nosotros are more likely to ask for assist through social media which can save people." (Girl, age 15)

There is slightly less consensus amidst teens who say social media has had a more often than not negative result on people their age. The top response (mentioned by 27% of these teens) is that social media has led to more than bullying and the overall spread of rumors.

"Gives people a bigger audience to speak and teach hate and scoff each other." (Male child, age thirteen)

"People can say whatsoever they want with anonymity and I recollect that has a negative impact." (Male child, age 15)

"Because teens are killing people all because of the things they run into on social media or because of the things that happened on social media." (Girl, historic period fourteen)

Meanwhile, 17% of these respondents feel these platforms harm relationships and result in less meaningful homo interactions. Similar shares think social media distorts reality and gives teens an unrealistic view of other people's lives (15%), or that teens spend also much time on social media (14%).

"Information technology has a negative impact on social (in-person) interactions." (Boy, historic period 17)

"Information technology makes it harder for people to socialize in real life, considering they become accustomed to not interacting with people in person." (Girl, age 15)

"It provides a fake image of someone's life. It sometimes makes me feel that their life is perfect when it is not." (Girl, age xv)

"[Teens] would rather go scrolling on their phones instead of doing their homework, and information technology's and then easy to do and so. It's merely a huge distraction." (Boy, historic period 17)

Another 12% criticize social media for influencing teens to give in to peer pressure level, while smaller shares express concerns that these sites could lead to psychological issues or drama.

Vast majority of teens have admission to a home computer or smartphone

Some 95% of teens now say they have or accept access to a smartphone, which represents a 22-percentage-point increase from the 73% of teens who said this in 2014-2015. Smartphone buying is nearly universal amidst teens of different genders, races and ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

A more nuanced story emerges when information technology comes to teens' access to computers. While 88% of teens study having access to a desktop or laptop computer at home, access varies profoundly by income level. Fully 96% of teens from households with an annual income of $75,000 or more per year say they have access to a computer at home, but that share falls to 75% among those from households earning less than $30,000 a year.

Computer admission likewise varies by the level of education among parents. Teens who have a parent with a bachelor's degree or more are more likely to say they take access to a computer than teens whose parents have a high schoolhouse diploma or less (94% vs. 78%).

As smartphone access has go more prevalent, a growing share of teens now written report using the internet on a nearly-constant basis. Some 45% of teens say they use the internet "almost constantly," a figure that has about doubled from the 24% who said this in the 2014-2015 survey. Another 44% say they get online several times a day, meaning roughly nine-in-ten teens get online at least multiple times per day.

There are some differences in teens' frequency of internet employ by gender, as well as race and ethnicity. Half of teenage girls (50%) are near-constant online users, compared with 39% of teenage boys. And Hispanic teens are more than likely than whites to study using the net most constantly (54% vs. 41%).

A bulk of both boys and girls play video games, merely gaming is nearly universal for boys

Overall, 84% of teens say they have or accept access to a game console at dwelling, and 90% say they play video games of any kind (whether on a figurer, game console or cellphone). While a substantial majority of girls report having access to a game console at home (75%) or playing video games in general (83%), those shares are even college amidst boys. Roughly nine-in-ten boys (92%) accept or have access to a game panel at home, and 97% say they play video games in some course or way.

There has been growth in game console ownership amongst Hispanic teens and teens from lower-income families since the Heart'due south previous written report of the teen technology landscape in 2014-2015. The share of Hispanics who say they have access to a game console at home grew by 10 percentage points during this time catamenia. And 85% of teens from households earning less than $30,000 a yr at present say they have a game console at home, upward from 67% in 2014-2015.