Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among U.S. teens; some say they’re on these sites almost constantly

This story was originally published on pewresearch.org

Two teenage boys use their smartphones in Vail, Colorado. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

Despite national concerns regarding the effects of technology on young people, numerous teens remain as digitally connected as before. A majority of teens engage with social media and own a smartphone, with nearly half reporting they are online nearly all the time, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024.

YouTube ranks first among the online platforms mentioned in our survey. Ninety percent of teens say they use the site, a slight decrease from 95% in 2022.

TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat continue to be popular among teenagers. Around six out of ten teens report using TikTok and Instagram, while 55% say they use Snapchat.

Over the past decade, the use of Facebook and X has significantly decreased. Currently, 32% of teens report using Facebook, a drop from 71% in 2014-15, although the percentage has been stable in recent years. Additionally, 17% of teens say they use X (formerly Twitter), which is roughly half of the 33% who reported using it a decade ago, and a decrease from 23% in 2022.

Roughly one-quarter of teens (23%) say they use WhatsApp, up 6 percentage points since 2022.

And 14% of teens use Reddit, a share that has remained stable over the past few years.

We asked about Threads, launched by parent company Meta in 2023, for the first time this year. Only 6% of teens report using it.

How often do teens visit online platforms?

Discussions about teen social media usage frequently focus on the amount of time teens spend on these platforms. As legislators consider possible regulations, our 2023 survey revealed that most Americans favor imposing time limits for minors on social media.

Our recent survey inquired about teens' frequency of use across five platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.

Overall, 73% of teens report using YouTube daily, making it the most widely used and visited platform among those we surveyed. This includes 15% who describe their usage as “almost constant.”

Approximately six-in-ten visit TikTok daily, with 16% indicating they are on it almost constantly.

Roughly half of teens say they use Instagram or Snapchat every day, with about one-in-ten reporting they are on each of these platforms almost constantly.

The percentage of teens who claim to use Instagram almost constantly has slightly increased, from 8% in 2023 to 12% now.

Relatively few teens report daily use of Facebook (20%).

Across all five platforms, one-third of teens use at least one of these sites almost constantly.

These findings are largely similar to what we’ve found the past two years.

By gender

As in previous surveys, teen girls are more likely than boys to say they use TikTok almost constantly (19% vs. 13%).

Inversely, teen boys are more likely than girls to use YouTube this often. While 19% of boys say they use it almost constantly, that share drops to 11% among girls.

Unlike last year, similar shares of boys (13%) and girls (12%) today say they use Snapchat almost constantly.

There are also no gender differences in the shares of teens who report using Instagram and Facebook almost constantly.

By race and ethnicity

Roughly one-quarter of Black (28%) or Hispanic (25%) teens say they visit TikTok almost constantly. This share drops to 8% among White teens.1

Black and Hispanic teens are also more likely than White teens to say they constantly use YouTube or Instagram.

There are few to no racial or ethnic differences in the shares visiting Snapchat and Facebook on a near constant basis.

How does the use of online platforms differ across demographic groups?

While many teens engage with online platforms, usage varies by gender, race and ethnicity, age, and household income.

By gender

Instagram and TikTok are used more widely by teen girls than teen boys. For example, 66% of girls say they use TikTok, compared with 59% of boys. Instagram use follows a similar pattern (66% vs. 56%).

On the other hand, boys are more likely than girls to say they use YouTube (93% vs. 87%).

By race and ethnicity

Among teens, a larger share of those who are Black (79%) or Hispanic (74%) than White (54%) say they use TikTok. Black and Hispanic teens also stand out compared with White teens in their use of Instagram and X.

When it comes to the messaging platform WhatsApp, Hispanic teens are more likely than Black or White teens to say they use it.

By age

Older teens are more likely than younger teens to use each of the platforms we asked about. Notably, teens ages 15 to 17 are more likely than those ages 13 to 14 say they use Instagram (72% vs. 43%) or Snapchat (63% vs. 44%).

Differences are more modest for platforms like YouTube, which most older (92%) and younger (87%) teens use.

By household income

As was true in prior studies, Facebook remains more commonly used among teens in lower-income households. For example, 45% of teens in households earning less than $30,000 a year say they use Facebook. This drops to 35% among teens in households earning $30,000 to $74,999 a year and 29% among teens with household incomes of $75,000 or more.

Teens in lower-income households are more likely than those in the highest-income households to say they use TikTok (73% vs. 59%).

By partisanship

Teens who identify as Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely Republicans and GOP leaners to say they use TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and WhatApp.

TikTok stands out for its partisan difference: 73% of Democratic teens versus 52% of Republican teens say they use the platform.

How much time are teens spending online?

We also asked teens about how often they go online in general.

Nearly half of teens say they are online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade ago. This share has stayed consistent over the past few years.

Overall, nearly all teens – 96% – report using the internet daily.

By race and ethnicity

Hispanic and Black teens stand out in their screen time. About half or more Hispanic (58%) or Black (53%) teens say they use the internet almost constantly. That share drops to 37% among White teens.

There’s no one way that today’s teens go online.

Our latest survey shows that large shares of teens have or have access to a smartphone (95%), desktop or laptop computer (88%), gaming console (83%), or tablet computer (70%) at home.

Overall, smartphone, computer and gaming console ownership has remained stable over the past few years. But the share of teens who say they have access to tablets has risen from 65% in 2023 to 70% today.

By age

Most teens say they have or have access to a smartphone. But older teens (98%) are slightly more likely than younger teens (90%) to say this.

Older teens are also more likely than younger teens to have or have access to a desktop or laptop computer (91% vs. 85%).

There are no differences by age when it comes to having a gaming console or tablet computer.

By household income

Access to a home computer or a tablet is most common among teens in high-income households.

• Desktop or laptop computer: 93% of teens living in households whose annual income is $75,000 or more have access to a home computer. That share falls to about eight-in-ten among those whose annual household income is $30,000 to $74,999 (81%) or less than $30,000 (78%).

  
  

• Tablet computer: About three-quarters of teens whose annual household income is $75,000 or more (73%) have access to a tablet at home, compared with 64% each among teens whose annual household income is $30,000 to $74,999 and those whose household income is less than $30,000.

  
  

By gender

Majorities of boys and girls have access to a gaming console, but boys stand out. Nine-in-ten teenage boys say they have access to a gaming console at home, while about three quarters of girls say this (76%).