Pew Survey: Teens Love YouTube, Tolerate Facebook, Skip Reddit

For teenagers, Facebook isn’t cool anymore. That’s probably the least surprising insight from a recent Pew Research Center survey that analyzed social media habits in American teens. Some of the other results, however, provide a little more food for thought. Snapchat, for example, isn’t nearly as popular as YouTube. TikTok has actually lost traction since last year. And race and sex also affect social media preferences.

The Pew study, entitled “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023,” surveyed 1,453 American teens in September and October of this year. Each respondent provided information on their age, gender, race, and household income.

YouTube Still Dominates

If there’s one thing that unites American teens, it may well be their affinity for YouTube. Ninety-three percent of all teens surveyed have used this site at least once, with 38% on “several times a day” and 16% on “almost constantly.” (Compare and contrast with Facebook: 33% have used it at least once, and only 3% “almost constantly.”)

These numbers were similar for both boys and girls, although heavy usage seemed to depend on race. White teens make up only 9% of the “almost constantly” demographic, compared to 23% of Black teens, and 27% of Hispanic teens.

While TikTok is definitely popular with the teenage crowd, it’s not actually as ubiquitous as it may seem. Only 63% — about two-thirds — of American teens have used the app at all. The “almost constantly” crowd for TikTok clocks in at 17%, which is not too different from YouTube. What’s more, the service is actually less popular now than it was at this time last year. In 2022, 67% of teens reported having used it at least once.

Still, TikTok was one of only four social media platforms that appeal to a majority of teens. In addition to YouTube and TikTok, respondents also reported an affinity for Snapchat (60% have used at least once, 14% almost constantly) and Instagram (59% have used at least once, 8% almost constantly). The next-most popular service was Facebook. That means that WhatsApp (21% have used at least once), Twitter (20%), and Reddit (14%) fared even worse.

Different Tastes By Race and Gender

While Pew pointed out that not every race or sex difference in the study was statistically significant, some of them were. Instagram and Snapchat, for example, skew more toward girls. Discord and Twitch, on the other hand, skew more toward boys. WhatsApp is more popular among Hispanic teens, while Twitter is more popular with Black teens.

This data lends itself to some interesting inferences — boys gravitating toward gaming and girls gravitating toward fashion, for example. However, Jeff Gottfried, one of the lead authors of the report, cautioned against reading too much into the results.

“This survey didn’t get at the ‘why’ behind the differences we find among teens across demographics in their use of specific social media sites, so we can’t say for certain what the driving factors may be,” he told Techonomy in an email. The demographic differences, however, have been fairly consistent over the last decade.

In any case, it’s clear that teens give a great deal of their attention to social media. In that respect, at least, they’re exactly like their parents.