YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among U.S. teens; some say they’re on these sites almost constantly
Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand teens’ use of digital devices, social media and other online platforms.
The Center conducted an online survey of 1,391 U.S. teens from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024, through Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel. The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.
Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and the survey methodology.
This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.
Amid national concerns about technology’s impact on youth, many teens are as digitally connected as ever. Most teens use social media and have a smartphone, and nearly half say they’re online almost constantly, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept. 18-Oct. 10, 2024.
YouTube tops the list of the online platforms we asked about in our survey. Nine-in-ten teens report using the site, slightly down from 95% in 2022.
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among teens. Roughly six-in-ten teens say they use TikTok and Instagram, and 55% say the same for Snapchat.
Facebook and X use have steeply declined over the past decade. Today, 32% of teens say they use Facebook. This is down from 71% in 2014-15, though the share of teens who use the site has remained stable in recent years. And 17% of teens say they use X (formerly Twitter) – about half the share who said this a decade ago (33%), and down from 23% in 2022.
Roughly one-quarter of teens (23%) say they use WhatsApp, up 6 percentage points since 2022.
And 14% of teens use Reddit, a share that has remained stable over the past few years.
We asked about Threads, launched by parent company Meta in 2023, for the first time this year. Only 6% of teens report using it.
How often do teens visit online platforms?
Debates about teen social media use often center on how much time teens spend on these platforms. As lawmakers explore potential regulations, our 2023 survey found a majority of Americans support time limits for minors on social media.
Our current survey asked teens how often they use five platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
Overall, 73% of teens say they go on YouTube daily, making YouTube the most widely used and visited platform we asked about. This share includes 15% who describe their use as “almost constant.”
About six-in-ten visit TikTok daily. This includes 16% who report being on it almost constantly.
Roughly half of teens say they go on Instagram or Snapchat every day, including about one-in-ten who say they’re on each of these platforms almost constantly.
The share of teens who say they use Instagram almost constantly has increased slightly, from 8% in 2023 to 12% today.
Relatively few teens report using Facebook daily (20%).
Across all five platforms, one-third of teens use at least one of these sites almost constantly.
These findings are largely similar to what we’ve found the past two years.
By gender
As in previous surveys, teen girls are more likely than boys to say they use TikTok almost constantly (19% vs. 13%).
Inversely, teen boys are more likely than girls to use YouTube this often. While 19% of boys say they use it almost constantly, that share drops to 11% among girls.
Unlike last year, similar shares of boys (13%) and girls (12%) today say they use Snapchat almost constantly.
There are also no gender differences in the shares of teens who report using Instagram and Facebook almost constantly.
By race and ethnicity
Roughly one-quarter of Black (28%) or Hispanic (25%) teens say they visit TikTok almost constantly. This share drops to 8% among White teens.
Black and Hispanic teens are also more likely than White teens to say they constantly use YouTube or Instagram.
There are few to no racial or ethnic differences in the shares visiting Snapchat and Facebook on a near constant basis.
How does the use of online platforms differ across demographic groups?
While many teens engage with online platforms, usage varies by gender, race and ethnicity, age, and household income.
By gender
Instagram and TikTok are used more widely by teen girls than teen boys. For example, 66% of girls say they use TikTok, compared with 59% of boys. Instagram use follows a similar pattern (66% vs. 56%).
On the other hand, boys are more likely than girls to say they use YouTube (93% vs. 87%).
By race and ethnicity
Among teens, a larger share of those who are Black (79%) or Hispanic (74%) than White (54%) say they use TikTok. Black and Hispanic teens also stand out compared with White teens in their use of Instagram and X.
When it comes to the messaging platform WhatsApp, Hispanic teens are more likely than Black or White teens to say they use it.
By age
Older teens are more likely than younger teens to use each of the platforms we asked about. Notably, teens ages 15 to 17 are more likely than those ages 13 to 14 say they use Instagram (72% vs. 43%) or Snapchat (63% vs. 44%).
Differences are more modest for platforms like YouTube, which most older (92%) and younger (87%) teens use.
By household income
As was true in prior studies, Facebook remains more commonly used among teens in lower-income households. For example, 45% of teens in households earning less than $30,000 a year say they use Facebook. This drops to 35% among teens in households earning $30,000 to $74,999 a year and 29% among teens with household incomes of $75,000 or more.
Teens in lower-income households are more likely than those in the highest-income households to say they use TikTok (73% vs. 59%).
By partisanship
Teens who identify as Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely Republicans and GOP leaners to say they use TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and WhatApp.
TikTok stands out for its partisan difference: 73% of Democratic teens versus 52% of Republican teens say they use the platform.
How much time are teens spending online?
We also asked teens about how often they go online in general.
Nearly half of teens say they are online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade ago. This share has stayed consistent over the past few years.
Overall, nearly all teens – 96% – report using the internet daily.
By race and ethnicity
Hispanic and Black teens stand out in their screen time. About half or more Hispanic (58%) or Black (53%) teens say they use the internet almost constantly. That share drops to 37% among White teens.
These findings are consistent with previous Center surveys.
By age
Being online almost constantly is more common among older teens than younger ones. About half of 15- to 17-year-olds report that they are online this often, compared with 38% of those ages 13 to 14.
What devices do teens have access to at home?
There’s no one way that today’s teens go online.
Our latest survey shows that large shares of teens have or have access to a smartphone (95%), desktop or laptop computer (88%), gaming console (83%), or tablet computer (70%) at home.
Overall, smartphone, computer and gaming console ownership has remained stable over the past few years. But the share of teens who say they have access to tablets has risen from 65% in 2023 to 70% today.
By age
Most teens say they have or have access to a smartphone. But older teens (98%) are slightly more likely than younger teens (90%) to say this.
Older teens are also more likely than younger teens to have or have access to a desktop or laptop computer (91% vs. 85%).
There are no differences by age when it comes to having a gaming console or tablet computer.
By household income
Access to a home computer or a tablet is most common among teens in high-income households.
- Desktop or laptop computer: 93% of teens living in households whose annual income is $75,000 or more have access to a home computer. That share falls to about eight-in-ten among those whose annual household income is $30,000 to $74,999 (81%) or less than $30,000 (78%).
- Tablet computer: About three-quarters of teens whose annual household income is $75,000 or more (73%) have access to a tablet at home, compared with 64% each among teens whose annual household income is $30,000 to $74,999 and those whose household income is less than $30,000.
By gender
Majorities of boys and girls have access to a gaming console, but boys stand out. Nine-in-ten teenage boys say they have access to a gaming console at home, while about three quarters of girls say this (76%).
For more on gender differences in video game use, read our 2023 report: Teens and Video Games Today.
