Facebook is no longer the most popular online platform among US teenagers: Survey

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, Facebook is no longer the most popular online platform among US teenagers.

Today, roughly half (51 percent) of US teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat. While 85 percent teenagers use YouTube, 72 percent use Instagram and 69 percent use Snapchat, the survey said.

Most notably, smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95 percent of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45 percent of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis.

The survey also finds that there is no clear consensus among teens about the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as mostly positive (31 percent) or mostly negative (24 percent), but the largest share (45 percent) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative.

The survey of was conducted on US teens( 13- 17) between March 7-April 10, 2018.

It said in the Center's 2014-2015 survey of teen social media use, 71 percent of teens reported being Facebook users. No other platform was used by a clear majority of teens at the time: Around half (52 percent) of teens said they used Instagram, while 41 percent reported using Snapchat.

In 2018, three online platforms other than Facebook - YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat - are used by sizable majorities of this age group.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of teens now say they use Facebook. The shares of teens who use Twitter and Tumblr are largely comparable to the shares who did so in the 2014-2015 survey.

The survey pointed out that lower-income teens are far more likely than those from higher-income households to say Facebook is the online platform they use most often (22 percent vs. 4 percent).

However, Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most often (42 percent vs. 29 percent ), while boys are more inclined than girls to identify YouTube as their go-to platform (39 percent vs. 25 percent).

Additionally, white teens (41 percent) are more likely than Hispanic (29 percent) or black (23 percent) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they use most often, while black teens are more likely than whites to identify Facebook as their most used site (26 percent vs. 7 percent).