Pew Research Releases: “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023” Report

From Pew Research:

Despite negative headlines and growing concerns about social media’s impact on youth, teens continue to use these platforms at high rates – with some describing their social media use as “almost constant,” according to a new Pew Research Center report.

Roughly nine-in-ten U.S. teens say they use YouTube, making it the most widely used platform measured in our survey. Majorities of teens ages 13 to 17 also say they use TikTok (63%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%). And while Facebook once dominated the social media landscape among America’s youth, the share of teens who use the site has dropped from 71% in 2014-2015 to 33% today. Twitter, which was renamed X in July 2023, has also seen its teen user base shrink during the past decade – albeit at a less steep decline than Facebook.

The new report, based on a survey of 1,453 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept. 26-Oct. 23, 2023, finds that teens’ site and app usage has changed little in the past year. The share of teens using these platforms has remained relatively stable since spring 2022, when the Center last surveyed on these topics. For example, the percentage of teens who use TikTok is statistically unchanged since last year. And for the first time, we asked teens about using BeReal: 13% report using this app.

How often do teens visit online platforms?

In addition to asking teens about the types of platforms they use, we also asked them how often they use five specific platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. About seven-in-ten teens say they visit YouTube daily, including 16% who report being on the site almost constantly. At the same time, 58% of teens are daily users of TikTok. This includes 17% who describe their TikTok use as almost constant.

About half of teens use Snapchat and Instagram daily. A somewhat larger share reports using Snapchat almost constantly compared with Instagram (14% vs. 8%). Far fewer teens say they use Facebook on a daily basis (19%), with only 3% saying they are on the site almost constantly. Taken together, a third of teens use at least one of these five sites almost constantly – which is similar to what we found last year.

Device usage: Smartphones, computers, gaming consoles and tablets

The survey also examined the amount of time teens report spending on the internet more broadly, and the types of devices they have access to at home. Nearly half of teens say they use the internet almost constantly. This is on par with what we found last year, but roughly double the 24% who said this in the 2014-2015 survey.

When it comes to specific devices, our survey finds that most teens have or have access at home to a smartphone (95%), desktop or laptop computer (90%), or a gaming console (83%). A smaller share – though still a 65% majority – say the same for tablets. However, when it comes to home computers and tablets, access remains less common for teens in lower-income households. For example, roughly seven-in-ten teens living in households earning less than $30,000 a year (72%) say they have access to a home computer. That share rises among those whose annual household income is $30,000 to $74,999 (87%) or $75,000 and above (94%).

Additional key findings about demographic differences include:

Gender differences

• Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to say they use Instagram (66% vs. 53%). BeReal, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook also show a similar lean toward teen girls. Similarly, teen girls are more likely than boys to say they almost constantly use TikTok (22% vs. 12%) and Snapchat (17% vs. 12%). On the other hand, teen boys are more likely than teen girls to use Discord (34% vs. 22%) and Twitch (22% vs. 11%). And larger shares of boys than girls use Reddit and YouTube.

• While most teen boys and girls report having access to a gaming console at home, more boys say this than girls (91% vs. 75%).

Racial and ethnic differences

• Eight-in-ten Black teens report using TikTok, compared with 70% of Hispanic teens and 57% of White teens. Black teens are also more likely than Hispanic or White teens to be Twitter users. (Our survey question asked about “Twitter, recently renamed to X.”) When it comes to WhatsApp, Hispanic teens are more likely than Black or White teens to say they use the messaging platform. BeReal is the only platform asked about that White teens are more likely to use than Black or Hispanic teens.

• Larger shares of Black and Hispanic teens report being on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok almost constantly, compared with a smaller share of White teens who say the same. Hispanic teens stand out in TikTok use: 32% say they are on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

Age differences

Older teens are more likely than younger teens to use many of the platforms asked about, including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit. For example, while 68% of teens ages 15 to 17 say they use Instagram, this share drops to 45% among teens ages 13 and 14.

• Older teens ages 15 to 17 are also somewhat more likely than younger teens to be near-constant internet users (50% vs. 40%).

These are among the key findings of a new Pew Research Center analysis based on a survey of 1,453 U.S. teenagers ages 13-17 conducted Sept. 26-Oct. 23, 2023 via Ipsos. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

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