- A new survey finds 1 in 5 teens use YouTube and TikTok “almost constantly.”
- YouTube is overwhelmingly teens’ favorite social media platform.
- TikTok and SnapchatTikTok and Snapchat follow as teens’ second and third favorite platforms.
Social media use among teens is as high as ever, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Conducted between September 26 and October 23, 2023, the survey finds that nearly one in five teens use YouTube or TikTok “almost constantly.” Additionally, over half of teens are daily users of YouTube (71 percent), TikTok (58 percent), and Snapchat (51 percent).
Although teens’ social media use has changed little since the Center’s 2022 survey on the same topic, it comes amidst growing concerns about the impact of social media on youth. Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a warning about the threats that social media poses to the mental health of youth. Various states have passed or proposed parental consent laws for the use of social media, and a proposal to ban TikTok continues to gain bipartisan support in Congress. Yet teens remain undeterred in their devotion to and time spent on their favorite platforms.
YouTube Is #1
Approximately 9 out of 10 teens use YouTube, making it their favorite social media platform by far and away. Unlike the other social media sites, a nearly equal percentage of boys (96 percent) and girls (91 percent) watch YouTube. It’s tempting for adults to dismiss the video-sharing site as a huge waste of time, but that’s not how kids see it. For them, it’s a place where they can go to satisfy their curiosity about everything that interests them.
While adults largely turn to Google for answers to everything from the impact of a government shutdown to holiday gift ideas, young people want visually entertaining answers to their questions. If they yearn to learn about sharks, for example, they look for videos about the sea creature and enjoy being conveniently served even more videos about their topic of interest.
TikTok and Snapchat Are #2 and #3
Over half of teens use TikTok (58 percent) and Snapchat (51 percent), with Instagram (47 percent) and Facebook (19 percent) trailing behind. Teen girls are more likely to use Instagram (66 percent girls vs. 53 percent boys), TikTok (68 percent girls vs. 59 percent boys), and Snapchat (65 percent girls vs. 56 percent boys), and there are racial gaps in social media app usage, too.
For example, 8 in 10 black teens report using TikTok, compared to 70 percent of Hispanic teens and 57 percent of White teens. Like they do on YouTube, teens use TikTok as a source of information. A News Consumption In The U.K. 2022/23 report finds that TikTok is the favorite single news source among 12 to 15-year-olds, followed by YouTube and Instagram.
Source: Pew Research Center
Teens’ Internet Use Has Doubled in the Past Decade
Nearly half of teens report using the internet “almost constantly” (46 percent), the same percentage as reported a year ago. But a look back at Pew’s 2014-15 study reveals the bigger picture of teens’ internet use. In the earlier study, only 24 percent of teens reported using the internet “almost constantly”—this has doubled in under a decade.
So What Can Parents Do?
The data tells us there is no stopping teens from going online and accessing their favorite platforms. So, the sensible solution to this conundrum is to equip them with tools to use these platforms wisely and productively. In doing so, three lessons stand out:
- Understand Those Algorithms: If you’ve ever had a teenager, then you know how much they hate to be told what to like, eat, or wear. Do they know that’s what algorithms do? Tell your teen that powerful algorithms—calculations, and rules that platforms use to feed content to users—lie behind the recommendations they get for everything from what music to listen to, what products to buy, and who to be friends with. In fact, algorithms have largely replaced meddling parents as the puppeteers of their lives. Having this knowledge may just change how your teen scrutinizes the content on their feeds.
- Ask: Who The Heck Created This? All the content on YouTube and TikTok is user-created. This is important for teens to think about. Ask them to consider who the users (i.e., “creators”) are on YouTube and TikTok. Mostly, they are teens just like them. Chances are, most of these teen creators are not experts yet. So it is important for your teens to consider who created the content they watch, especially before they use it for research, a school project, or share it with others.
- Recognize “Persuasive Technologies”: Notifications, autoplay, infinite scrolling, these “persuasive technologies” are designed to capture and hold our attention. Talk to your teens about how these techniques might keep them “hooked” on their favorite apps without realizing it. This is an important first step towards helping them appreciate that their time is their own and how they use it is a choice they get to, and should, make free from manipulation or coercion.
None of these understandings alone will be the silver bullet we are all looking for to help kids spend less (wasteful) time online. But used together, they can help kids be more mindful and proactive users of the apps and sites they can’t seem to get enough of.
References
Pew Research Center, December 2023. Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023.
Pew Research Center, August 2022. Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022.
Ofcom, July 21, 2011. News Consumption in the UK: 2022.
Pew Research Center, April 9, 2015. Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015.