If you thought teens were glued to their phones, new data from the Pew Research Center confirms it. About one in five U.S. teens say they use TikTok or YouTube "almost constantly." But here's the kicker: when you break down the numbers by race and income, the gaps are massive.
The survey included 1,458 teens ages 13 to 17. It reveals some very concerning patterns about who's spending the most time on social media. The digital divide looks quite a bit different than you might expect. Pew does not attempt to explain why the figures differ among groups of teens.
The Chronically Online Problem
The headline figure is: 21% of teens are on TikTok almost constantly, and 17% say the same about YouTube. What's more: 36% of teens use at least one of the five most popular platforms – YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook – almost constantly. If you boil it down, that's more than one in three kids who basically can't put their phones down.
Race Makes a Massive Difference
The report notes that Black and Hispanic/Latino teens are far more likely to be constantly connected than white teens. The stat jumps, with 35% of surveyed Black teens reporting that they’re on YouTube almost constantly. In comparison, the figure is 23% for Hispanic/Latino teens and just 8% for white teens. The ratio from highest to lowest is almost four-to-one.
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The pattern is very similar for TikTok, too: 37% of Black teens and 34% of Hispanic/Latino teens use it almost constantly, versus 10% of white teens. For Instagram, it's 20% of Black teens and 22% of Hispanic/Latino teens, compared to only 5% of white teens.
The gaps show up in overall platform adoption (not necessarily constant use) as well. Black teens are more likely to use Instagram than white or Hispanic/Latino teens (82% vs. 55% and 69%). The same is true with TikTok (87% vs. 57% and 78%), and even X (Twitter) (29% vs. 10% and 16%).
Income Also Factors In
Teens from lower and middle-income households also use social media significantly more. Nearly half of teens in households earning under $30,000 use Facebook (46%). In comparison, the figure is 27% in households earning $75,000 or more. Once again, the figures carry over to TikTok: 77% of lower-income household teens use it, compared to 63% of higher-income household teens.
Teens in lower-income households are nearly twice as likely to be online in general almost constantly (54%) compared to higher-income teens (35%).
How the Platforms Stack Up
Despite all the hype about TikTok, YouTube remains dominant, used by 92% of teens. It was also the only one of the networks in the survey equally popular across all age groups. Not just that, it was the most-used platform daily, with 76% of teens using it every day. TikTok sits quite a bit lower at 68% for overall adoption and 61% for daily use. Instagram took third place with 63% adoption and 55% daily use, and Snapchat clocked in 55% adoption and 46% daily use.
Facebook seems to have plummeted in popularity, from 71% teen usage in 2014-15 to just 31% today. The survey also included two less-popular networks. X (Twitter) took a fall from 33% to 16% in the same time period. It is more popular with Black teens, though, at 29% usage compared to 10% among white teens. Reddit seems to not have a lot of teen users, with just 17% using it. However, WhatsApp is growing, up from 17% in 2022 to 24% today.
Bottom Line
The data reflects how addicted teens are to social media, but adds important nuance in how much trends vary among social groups. So addressing the problem of app addiction may take slightly different forms, tailored to the social context.
[Image credit: antonbe/Pixabay]
