Nearly half of US teenagers say they are online ‘almost constantly’, amidst concern over harmful effects of social media on young people
Nearly half of US teenagers say they are online “almost constantly”, while most have a smartphone and use social media, according to a new study from Pew Research Center.
The findings come amidst concerns in many countries over the harmful effects of social media on young people, which prompted Australia to pass a law in November banning under-16s from such services.
YouTube was the top site used by teens, as in recent years, with 90 percent saying they used it, down slightly from 95 percent in 2022.
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat were also widely used, with roughly 60 percent saying they used TikTok and Instagram, and 55 percent for Snapchat.
Teen concerns
The use of Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, has sharply declined over the past decade for teens, Pew said.
Some 32 percent said they use Facebook, down from 71 percent in 2014-15, although Pew noted that this share has stabilised in recent years.
And 17 percent of teens said they used X, roughly half the 33 percent of ten years ago and down from 23 percent in 2022, the year the platform was purchased by Elon Musk.
About one-quarter, or 23 percent, said they use WhatsApp, up 6 percent since 2022, while 14 percent use Reddit, a share that has remained stable for several years.
A significant proportion of teens said they used social media platforms daily or “almost constantly”, with YouTube again the highest with 73 percent saying they visited the platform daily and 15 percent saying their use was almost constant.
Roughly 60 percent visited TikTok daily, including 16 percent with almost constant use, while roughly half of teens said they went to Instagram or Snapchat every day, including about 10 percent said they were on these platforms almost constantly.
The share of teens who said they used Instagram almost constantly has increased from 8 percent last year to 12 percent this year, but relatively few said they used Facebook daily, at 20 percent.
Constant use
About one-third of teens said they used at least one of these services almost constantly, figures that Pew said were largely similar to those for the past two years.
Girls were more likely than boys to report nearly constant use of TikTok, at 19 percent compared to 13 percent, but the ratio was reversed for YouTube, where the figure for boys was 19 percent compared to 11 percent for girls.
About one-quarter of Black or Hispanic teens said they visited TikTok almost constantly, dropping to 8 percent for White teens.
Black and Hispanic teens were also more likely than Whites to say they used YouTube or Instagram almost constantly.
Pew said it surveyed 1,391 US teens aged 13 to 17 from 18 September to 10 October.
