Report notes that nearly 50% of US youth say they are online “constantly,” despite concerns about the negative impacts of social media and smartphones on their mental health.
Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
As in previous years, YouTube was the most popular platform used by teens: 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day.
There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps that teens were using. For example, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67%, and Snapchat fell to 55% from 59%.
This small decline could be due to the easing of pandemic-era restrictions as children have more time to see friends in person, but it's not enough to be truly significant.
X saw the largest decline among teenage users. Only 17% of teens said they use X, compared to 23% in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit was stable at 14%. About 6% of teens said they use Threads, Meta's answer to X that launched in 2023.
Meta messaging service WhatsApp was a rare exception in that it saw the number of teenage users increase from 17% to 23% in 2022.
Pew also asked kids how often they use various online platforms. A small but significant number said they are in them “almost constantly.” For YouTube, 15% reported consistent use, for TikTok, 16%, and for Snapchat, 13%.
As in previous surveys, girls were more likely to use TikTok almost constantly while boys leaned toward YouTube. There were no significant gender differences in the use of Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.
About a quarter of Black and Hispanic teens said they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared to just 8% of white teens.
The report was based on a survey of 1,391 American adolescents ages 13 to 17 conducted from September 18 to October 10, 2024.