YouTube has become the new platform most used by young audiences while Facebook has collapsed in the priorities of this sector.
YouTube has positioned itself as the preferred platform for adolescents and young people due to the drop in interest in Facebook , which was previously considered the most important for users of this demographic sector. Today, young people choose to use social networks like YouTube , TikTok and even Snapchat instead of opting for the main Meta service.
The report comes from a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center . In it, some 1,316 American teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 were asked about their Internet habits. Thanks to this, it was determined that 70% of those surveyed prefer to use YouTube , TikTok and Snapchat instead of Facebook , and that only 32% have the app of this social network on their mobile.
The results obtained during the 2022 survey contrast too much with those found by the Pew Research Center in 2015, since on that occasion it was discovered that almost 71% of teenage users used Facebook .
Facebook has declined in the interest of teenagers
Despite the fact that Mark Zuckerberg , CEO of the Facebook parent company now known as Meta , requested in 2021 that its main platform redirect its efforts to attract a younger audience, the platform has seen this demographic shrink more and more year after year. year until reduced to alarming levels for the companies.
Although it is not clearly a social network, the platform most chosen by adolescents was YouTube with 95% of choices. In addition, 19% confessed to being on this page owned by Google “constantly”. TikTok follows in second place with 67% of choices and 16% who confessed to using it constantly.
However, not everything was bad for Meta as Instagram did rank favorably in the survey, with 62% using it and 10% saying they use it constantly. Snapchat was another service that increased its use among teenagers since 2015, going from 41% to 59%.
Others mentioned in the survey include Twitter and Tumblr , which dropped 10% and 9%, respectively. Twitch (20%), WhatsApp (17%) and Reddit (14%), which were not included in the survey from seven years ago.
On the other hand, there are also platforms that ceased to exist and for that reason were no longer shown in the Pew Research Center survey . For example, in 2015 Google+ and Vine were still included , with 33% and 24% respectively.
Social networks, an essential part in the life of adolescents
In another section of the survey, it asked about the technological devices that adolescents owned or had access to. Smartphones ranked first at 95%, up from 73% in 2015. Desktops/laptops followed at 90%, up from 87% in 2015, and game consoles at 80%, up from 2015. 81% from 2015.
Additionally, more than half of teens (54%) said they would find it hard to leave social media , and 36% said they spend too much time on it. As for the number of those who use the internet on a daily basis, it increased from 92% in 2015 to 97%.