For the latest research data on social media and messaging apps, see below. “Social media usage in 2021.”
A new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults found that the social media landscape in early 2018 was defined by a combination of long-standing trends and newly emerging narratives.
Facebook and YouTube dominate the landscape, with a notable majority of U.S. adults using each of these sites. At the same time, young Americans (especially those between the ages of 18 and 24) stand out for their acceptance and frequent use of different platforms. Approximately 78% of 18-24 year olds use her Snapchat, and a significant majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times a day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group currently use Instagram, and nearly half (45%) are Twitter users.
Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans, as it has since the center began researching the use of various social media in 2012. Currently, approximately two-thirds (68%) of U.S. adults report being Facebook users, and approximately three-quarters of those users access Facebook daily. The vast majority of Americans across all demographic groups, excluding those 65 and older, currently use Facebook.
But the social media story goes far beyond Facebook. Video-sharing site YouTube, while not a traditional social media platform, contains many social elements and is currently used by nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults and 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds. Masu. And the typical (median) American reports that he uses three of his eight primary platforms as measured by the Center in this survey.
These findings also highlight the public’s sometimes contradictory attitudes toward social media. For example, the percentage of social media users who say it’s difficult to quit these platforms has increased by 12 points compared to the survey conducted in early 2014. But equally, the majority of users (59%) say so.will do do not have Another 29% said it was difficult to stop using these sites, and 29% said quitting social media was not difficult at all.
Different social media platforms show different growth
Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform by a relatively healthy margin, with approximately 68% of U.S. adults currently being Facebook users. No site or app other than the video-sharing platform YouTube measured in this study is used by more than 40% of American girlfriends.
The Center has asked about use of five of these platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest) in several previous surveys on technology use. And for the most part, the percentage of Americans who use each of these services is similar to what the center found in its previous survey on social media use, conducted in April 2016. The most notable exception is Instagram, where 35% of U.S. adults now say: They are using the platform, up 7 points from 28% who said they used it in 2016.
Social media usage among the youngest adults stands out
A previous study on social media use by the Pew Research Center similarly found that there are significant differences in social media use by age. Approximately 88% of 18-29 year olds say they use some form of social media. That rate drops to 78% for Americans ages 30 to 49, 64% for those ages 50 to 64, and 37% for Americans 65 and older.
At the same time, there are clear differences in the use of various social media platforms At the inner The same goes for the young adult population. Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are significantly more likely to use platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter, even when compared to people in their mid-to-late 20s. These differences are especially noticeable when it comes to Snapchat. 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds are Snapchat users, but that percentage drops to 54% for 25- to 29-year-olds.
Facebook is used by a wide majority of Americans, excluding those 65 and older. However, other platforms appeal more strongly to specific subsets of the population. In addition to the age-related differences in the use of sites such as Instagram and his Snapchat mentioned above, some of the more prominent examples include:
- Pinterest remains significantly more popular with women (41% who say they use the site) than men (16%).
- LinkedIn remains particularly popular among college graduates and people from high-income households. Approximately 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn, compared to only 9% of Americans with a high school diploma or less.
- The messaging service WhatsApp is popular in Latin America, and this popularity extends to Latinos in the United States. 49% of Hispanics report being his WhatsApp user, compared to 14% of whites and 21% of blacks.
See Appendix A for more information on the use of social media platforms by different demographic groups.
About three-quarters of Facebook users and about six Snapchat and Instagram users visit each site every day
In addition to being the most popular social media site, Facebook users visit the site frequently. 74% of Facebook users say they visit the site every day, and about half (51%) say they visit the site several times a day. The percentage of Facebook users who visit the site every day is statistically unchanged compared to 2016, when 76% of Facebook users reported that they visited the site every day.
Although the overall percentage of Americans who use Snapchat is smaller than Facebook, a similar percentage of Snapchat users (49%) say they use the platform multiple times a day. Overall, the majority of Snapchat (63%) and Instagram (60%) users say they access these platforms daily. The percentage of Instagram users who visit the platform daily has increased slightly since 2016, when his 51% of Instagram users were daily visitors. (Note: This is the first year the Center specifically asked about how often people use Snapchat in a telephone poll.)
In addition to their high adoption of Snapchat and Instagram, the youngest adults also stand out for the frequency with which they use these two platforms. Approximately 82% of Snapchat users between the ages of 18 and 24 say they use the platform daily, and 71% say they use it multiple times a day. Similarly, 81% of her Instagram users in this age group access the platform every day, and 55% report that they access it several times a day.
The median American uses three of these eight social platforms
As with previous research on social media use, there is a significant amount of overlap between users of the various sites measured in this study. Most notably, the majority of users on each of these social platforms also use Facebook and YouTube. But this “reciprocity” also applies to other sites. For example, about three-quarters of both Twitter (73%) and Snapchat (77%) users say they also use Instagram.
This overlap broadly points to the fact that many Americans use multiple social platforms. Approximately three-quarters (73%) of the population uses one or more of the eight platforms measured in this study, with the typical (median) American using three of these sites. using. As expected, younger people tend to use a greater variety of social media platforms. The median age of 18-29 uses four of these platforms, but that number drops to three for those aged 30-49, two for those aged 50-64, and one for those aged 65 and older. Masu. older.
The majority of social media users say they will do not have It’s hard to quit these sites
Although the majority of Americans now use various types of social platforms, a relatively large number of users find it possible to quit social media without much difficulty.
Approximately 59% of social media users think this will be the case. do not have 29% said it was difficult to quit social media, while 29% said it was not difficult at all. In contrast, 40% say it is actually difficult to quit social media, but only 14% think it is “very difficult.” At the same time, the percentage of social media users who find it impossible to stop using these services has increased slightly in recent years. The center asked similar questions in a January 2014 survey in which 28% of social media users said it was difficult to quit social media, and 11% of them said it was “very difficult.” “It’s difficult.”
These findings vary by age. Almost half (51%) of social media users aged 18 to 24 say it’s difficult to quit social media, while only a third of users aged 50 and older feel the same way. This data is broadly consistent with other research the center has collected about Americans’ attitudes toward social media. Despite using social media for a variety of reasons, only 3% of social media users say they trust the information they find on these sites a lot. And relatively few people are confident that these platforms can keep their personal information safe from malicious actors.