Excluding video games, YouTube and TikTok are the most frequently used entertainment platforms currently used by teens in the US. Facebook’s popularity continues to decline among young users.
This is according to a study by the Pew Research Center that regularly studies the use of new media in the US. The decline of Facebook is large in seven years. In 2015, 71 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds still visited Facebook. In 2022, that will still be 32 percent. Also, in 2018, the Pew Research Center noted that young people’s interest is declining, even though Facebook use was still at 51 percent.
The contrast is great with YouTube. Google’s video platform is used by 95 percent of American teens. The relatively young competitor TikTok is also doing better. The Chinese video platform is used ‘sometimes’ by 67 percent of teens in the US. Moreover, 16 percent say they use it almost constantly.
The decline at Facebook is partly compensated. Instagram, also part of Facebook parent company Meta, saw its popularity among 13- to 17-year-olds increase from 52 to 62 percent between 2015 and 2022. But Snapchat also improves in the same period from 41 to 59 percent.
The fact that Facebook is losing popularity among young people has been going on for a while, partly because of the fact that Meta diversified its offer with the purchase of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
To keep up with the more recent competition, Instagram has recently shifted its focus to more video, including by giving ‘reels’ (short videos) more visibility. Something YouTube also does under the name ‘shorts.’
Although that also leads to protests from users who would like to continue to use their photo app as a photo app. Instagram must, therefore, also reverse some adjustments after it received criticism from Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, among others.
