(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 use amidst adults, see "Social Media Use in 2021. "

Until recently, Facebook
had dominated the social media landscape amidst America'southward youth – but it is no longer the most popular online platform amongst teens, according to a new Pew Inquiry Center survey. Today, roughly one-half (51%) of U.Due south. teens ages xiii to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.

This shift in teens' social media employ is merely one example of how the engineering mural for young people has evolved since the Center'due south terminal survey of teens and technology employ in 2014-2015. Near notably, smartphone ownership has become a almost ubiquitous chemical element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in plow fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a most-constant basis.

The survey besides finds there is no articulate consensus among teens about 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 main findings from the Center'due south survey of U.South. teens conducted March vii-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages thirteen to 17.

Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform amongst teens

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

In 2018, 3 online platforms other than Facebook – YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat – are used by sizable majorities of this historic period grouping. Meanwhile, 51% of teens now say they utilize Facebook. The shares of teens who use Twitter and Tumblr are largely comparable to the shares who did so in the 2014-2015 survey.

For the about function, teens tend to utilise similar platforms regardless of their demographic characteristics, but there are exceptions. Notably, lower-income teens are more than probable to gravitate toward Facebook than those from higher-income households – a trend consistent with previous Center surveys. Vii-in-x teens living in households earning less than $xxx,000 a year 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 important to note there were some changes in question wording betwixt Pew Research Heart's 2014-2015 and 2018 surveys of teen social media employ. YouTube and Reddit were not included as options in the 2014-2015 survey but were included in the current survey. In addition, 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 use.1 Even so, information technology is clear the social media surroundings today revolves less effectually a single platform than it did three years ago.2

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

Once again, lower-income teens are far more than probable than those from college income households to say Facebook is the online platform they use most often (22% vs. iv%). In that location are also some differences related to gender and to race and ethnicity when information technology comes to teens' most-used sites. Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most oftentimes (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 probable than Hispanic (29%) or black (23%) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they employ nigh often, while black teens are more likely than whites to place Facebook as their most used site (26% vs. 7%).

Despite the near ubiquitous presence of social media in their lives, there is no clear consensus amongst teens about these platforms' ultimate impact on people their historic period. A plurality of teens (45%) believe social media has a neither positive nor negative effect on people their historic period. Meanwhile, roughly three-in-ten teens (31%) say social media has had a by and large positive bear on, while 24% draw its outcome as mostly negative.

Given the opportunity to explain their views in their own words, teens who say social media has had a mostly positive outcome 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 considering information technology helps them proceed in affect and interact with others. Many of these responses emphasize how social media has fabricated it easier to communicate with family unit and friends and to connect with new people:

"I think social media accept a positive effect because it lets you talk to family members far away." (Girl, age 14)

"I feel that social media tin can make people my historic period feel less solitary or alone. It creates a space where you tin collaborate with people." (Daughter, age fifteen)

"It enables people to connect with friends hands and be able to make new friends besides." (Boy, age 15)

Others in this group cite the greater access to news and information that social media facilitates (sixteen%), or existence able to connect with people who share like interests (xv%):

"My mom had to get a ride to the library to get what I take in my hand all the time. She reminds me of that a lot." (Girl, age 14)

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

Smaller shares debate that social media is a practiced venue for entertainment (9%), that it offers a space for self-expression (seven%) or that it allows teens to get support from others (5%) or to learn new things in general (4%).

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

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

"We tin connect easier with people from different places and we are more likely to inquire for help through social media which can salvage people." (Daughter, age 15)

There is slightly less consensus amid teens who say social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age. The top response (mentioned by 27% of these teens) is that social media has led to more bullying and the overall spread of rumors.

"Gives people a bigger audience to speak and teach hate and belittle each other." (Male child, historic period 13)

"People can say whatever they want with anonymity and I remember that has a negative impact." (Boy, age 15)

"Considering teens are killing people all because of the things they encounter on social media or considering of the things that happened on social media." (Girl, age xiv)

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

"It has a negative impact on social (in-person) interactions." (Boy, age 17)

"It makes information technology harder for people to socialize in real life, because they get accustomed to non interacting with people in person." (Daughter, age xv)

"Information technology provides a fake prototype of someone'due south life. It sometimes makes me feel that their life is perfect when information technology is not." (Girl, age 15)

"[Teens] would rather go scrolling on their phones instead of doing their homework, and it's and then piece of cake to do and so. It's just a huge distraction." (Male child, historic period 17)

Another 12% criticize social media for influencing teens to give in to peer pressure, while smaller shares express concerns that these sites could atomic number 82 to psychological issues or drama.

Vast majority of teens have admission to a abode estimator or smartphone

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

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

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

Every bit smartphone access has become more prevalent, a growing share of teens now report using the internet on a virtually-constant basis. Some 45% of teens say they employ the net "virtually constantly," a figure that has about doubled from the 24% who said this in the 2014-2015 survey. Another 44% say they become 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 use by gender, besides as race and ethnicity. Half of teenage girls (50%) are well-nigh-constant online users, compared with 39% of teenage boys. And Hispanic teens are more likely than whites to written report using the internet almost 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 have access to a game console at dwelling, and ninety% say they play video games of any kind (whether on a computer, game console or cellphone). While a substantial bulk of girls study having access to a game console at habitation (75%) or playing video games in general (83%), those shares are fifty-fifty higher among boys. Roughly nine-in-ten boys (92%) take or accept access to a game panel at dwelling house, and 97% say they play video games in some form or fashion.

At that place has been growth in game console ownership among Hispanic teens and teens from lower-income families since the Center'southward previous study of the teen engineering science 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 flow. And 85% of teens from households earning less than $thirty,000 a twelvemonth now say they have a game console at dwelling, upward from 67% in 2014-2015.