Americans' social media habits are splintering in ways that echo the fractured traditional news landscape, according to a new Pew Research report.
Why it matters: The same fragmentation that reshaped news is now reshaping social media, making it harder for companies, brands and public figures to reliably reach large swaths of the public.
By the numbers: Pew Research Center surveyed 5,022 U.S. adults between Feb. 5 and June 18, and found that YouTube (84%), Facebook (71%) and Instagram (50%) remain the most widely used social platforms.
Between the lines: Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are some of the earliest platforms, having all been founded between 2004-2010, and thus have had more time to become part of a person's routine or media diet.
- Reddit and Twitter, now known as X, were also founded in 2005 and 2006, respectively, but have smaller user bases.
Yes, but: While the number of X users in the U.S. has decreased since 2021, Reddit has seen an uptick, according to the Pew survey.
- 26% report using Reddit today, compared to 18% four years ago.
- Reddit is most popular among those ages 18-29, with roughly half saying they use the platform regularly.
Zoom in: YouTube remains the most widely used platform among U.S. teens and those between the ages of 18-29 (95%) and 30-49 (92%), though TikTok is on the rise.
- 63% of those under 30 use the short-form video platform regularly and roughly half say they go on TikTok at least once a day.
- A majority of those under 30 (58%) are also active on Snapchat, the report finds.
- Meanwhile, Truth Social (1%), Bluesky (6%) and Threads (15%) are the least used platforms among young people.
Of note: WhatsApp is also steadily increasing in popularity among U.S. social media users — with 32% saying they use the platform, up from 23% in 2021. It is most popular among Asian and Hispanic users, per the report.
What to watch: Content across social media platforms is starting to inform large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini.
- According to a recent Muck Rack report, Google's LLM, Gemini, is most likely to cite content or pull transcripts from YouTube.
- Meanwhile Reddit remains a top source for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI overviews, according to research by marketing platform Profound.
More on Axios:
