• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, 7 hours ago

The social platforms being used for a variety of reasons may not surprise most marketers, but the percentage of their market share may.

Beyond the basic ad and content targeting, success in results comes not only from user demographics but also nuanced insights into human behavior, cultural context, and an understanding of the ethical implications these statistics reveal. These are among the findings of Pew Research Center's latest survey of social media use.

This provides insight beyond who the person is, examining why they act the way they do -- to inform not only audience targeting and messages, but media buying on specific platforms. 

For example, 84% of U.S. adults use Google's YouTube, but 71% also report using Meta Platforms' Facebook.

YouTube and Facebook are the only sites that a majority among all age groups say they use, and for YouTube, the youngest adults are still the most likely to do so.

For Facebook, the numbers are different. About 80% of those who use this platform are between the ages of 30 and 49.

The findings come from a Pew Research Center survey of 5,022 U.S. adults conducted February 5 through June 18, 2025.

SSRS, a market and survey firm, conducted the National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for Pew Research Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol.

The survey found that half of adults say they use Instagram, making it the only other platform in the survey used by at least 50% of Americans.

I found it surprising that only 37% use TikTok -- slightly up from last year -- compared with 21% in 2021 -- while 32% use WhatsApp. A slightly lower percentage say the same of Reddit, Snapchat and X.

It’s not clear how X’s latest change in a location service will impact users. Nikita Bier, X head of product, during the weekend announced the platform had rolled out a change intended to increase transparency. In each "About This Account" profile page now reveals the country or region where a user's account is based, a feature the company announced in October. 

“This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X.” Bier wrote on X.

The biggest concern revolved around identifying the location of those who travel. Bier wrote that for users in countries where speech has penalties, X included privacy toggles to only show the region.

The Pew study also identified that about one-third say they use WhatsApp -- up from 23% in 2021 -- while 26% today report using Reddit, compared with 18% four years ago.  

While YouTube and Facebook continue to sit at the top, the shares of Americans who report using them have remained relatively stable in recent years.

This year, Pew also asked about three platforms that are used by few adults (about one in ten) -- Threads, Bluesky, and Truth Social. Users under 30 years old are far more likely to use Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit.

Gender, race and ethnicity, education, and party affiliation also differ. While some of the biggest demographic differences in social media use are found across age groups, Pew also found that use of social platforms varies according to the person’s political beliefs.