YouTube, TikTok, Revealed as Most Constantly Used Social Media By Teens

YouTube and TikTok are reportedly the most used social media for teens in 2023, as revealed by a Pew Research Center survey. The study states that nearly 1 in 5 U.S. teens use YouTube and TikTok "almost constantly."

The Pew survey, which had 1,453 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 as respondents between September 26 and October 23 this year, released the results this Monday, which saw the continued dominance of familiar apps.

The two video-sharing platforms are at the top in terms of daily usage for 13 to 17 U.S. teens, as users visit YouTube, the most popular platform according to the report, regularly. 7 out of 10 teenagers say they see the video-sharing website daily, with 16% saying they do it "almost constantly."

TikTok came in a close 2nd, as 58% of teenagers use the Bytedance-owned application daily. Among them are 17% who say they use TikTok virtually constantly.

Applications Behind YouTube and TikTok

With YouTube and TikTok at the top of the social media pyramid, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook came in behind the two video-sharing platforms.

The Pew survey states that in terms of usage daily, Snapchat came in 3rd overall, followed by Instagram, wherein Snapchat is used nearly exclusively by a somewhat higher percentage of users, coming in at 14% vs. Instagram's 8%.

Facebook came in at the top 5, with just 3% of teenagers saying they use the Meta-owned platform "almost constantly", and only 19% of the respondents say they use it daily.

In terms of general usage beyond a daily basis, the survey states that 93% of adolescents say they use YouTube, proving it to be the most popular social media network among U.S. teens. Compared to 2022, that figure decreased by two percentage points.

TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram were also behind in this measurement, as all three were behind YouTube by at least 30 percentage points. The poll found that usage on three of the four platforms had somewhat decreased during the previous year. Snapchat, on the other hand, increased by 1%.

Facebook's Woes

Facebook receives a rough decrease, reflective of teens' daily usage, to 33% in 2023 from 71% in 2014-15. Twitter, now known as X, has also witnessed a reduced number of teenage users.

Associated Press adds that social media firms' algorithms have recently come under fire after a group of 33 states, including California and New York, filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms in October, claiming the business was complicit in the teenage mental health issue by intentionally and knowingly creating features on Facebook and Instagram that encourage young users to get addicted to the social media sites. Meta has refuted the accusations.