According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 35 percent of US adults now use Instagram, an increase of 7 percent from 2016. Other findings tell us that Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter have become more popular among the younger crowd, especially 18 to 24-year-olds. YouTube has become the most popular online platform, used by 73 percent of all US adults and 94 percent of those ages are 18 to 24. This basically means that virtually all college-aged people are consistently spending time on YouTube watching videos.
Speaking specifically about Facebook, the social media giant remains at the top of popularity for most people except for those age 65 and up. Since Pew started its surveys in 2012, Facebook’s usage has grown, but the number of US adults the social media company remains unchanged from 2016 at 68 percent. Lastly, the number of daily users also has remained steady, dropping two percentage points from last year’s survey of 76 percent of Facebook users to 74 percent.
Twitter has seen some improvements as well to its numbers. The company has 24 percent of adults now on the platform, compared to 2016’s number of 21 percent.
When talking about Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, their usage tends to drop off for adults who reach their mid to late 20s, and that trend is especially true for Snapchat. While there are 78 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds using Snapchat, the number has fallen to 54 percent of those aged from 25 to 29.
Demographics of U.S. adults who use Twitter
Total: 24%
Men: 23%
Women: 24White: 24%
Black: 26
Hispanic: 20Ages 18-29: 40%
30-49: 27
50-64: 19
65+: 8High school or less: 18%
Some college: 25
College+: 32Urban: 29%
Suburban: 23
Rural: 17https://t.co/8Bc2m8Q4Cv pic.twitter.com/U8e5DqNyJs— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 2, 2018
The average American surveyed uses three out of the eight social media platforms listed as choices on the survey. For the Pew survey, it looked at Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
