Commentary

Facebook Still Tops For Teens

While its popularity may have wobbled somewhat over the last two years or so, Facebook is still the most popular social network among teenagers, according to a new survey of 1,060 teens ages 13-17 conducted by Pew. Facebook is the leader in simple prevalence -- meaning how many teens are members and at least occasional users -- and also leads in terms of frequency of usage, although by a much smaller margin.

Overall, 71% of teens said they use Facebook, followed by 52% for Instagram, 41% for Snapchat, 33% for Twitter, 33% for Google+, 24% for Vine, and 14% for Tumblr. Of course there’s plenty of overlap, as 71% of teens said they use more than one social network. However, Facebook again leads the way among teens who use multiple networks, with 41% of teens saying they use Facebook most often, followed by 20% for Instagram, 11% for Snapchat, and 6% for Twitter.

There were some significant gender variations within these figures. Overall, 61% of teen girls were on Instagram, versus just 44% of boys, and 51% of teen girls were on Snapchat, compared to 31% of boys. Meanwhile 45% of boys said they use Facebook most often, compared to 36% of girls. Conversely, 23% of girls said they use Instagram most often, versus 17% of boys.

There were also differences correlated with age: 44% of teens ages 15-17 favored Facebook compared to 35% of younger teens, while 25% of teens ages 13-14 favored Instagram, compared to 17% of older teens.

Social network usage also varied by income. Thus 51% of teens from households with incomes under $30,000 said they used Facebook most often, but that figure fell to 46% for teens from households with incomes from $30,000-$74,999; 35% among teens with household incomes from $75,000-$99,999; and 31% among teens with household incomes over $100,000. 

Likewise, just 19% of teens from household incomes under $30,000 said they used Instagram most often, but this proportion rose steadily to 25% of teens in the $100,000+ bracket. The same trend was seen across income groups for Snapchat, which increased from 7% for the lowest income group to 15% for the highest.

1 comment about "Facebook Still Tops For Teens".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Anthony Detry from Mediabrands, April 10, 2015 at 3:50 p.m.

    1,060 seems like an extremely small sample size. I have a 13 year old, only a very small amount of her friends engage on FB. Instagram is no doubt their network of choice 

Next story loading loading..