Teens express mixed feelings about the influence of social media, but these sites remain an important part of their lives, with some using them “almost constantly”.
Currently, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Character.ai are gaining attention among teenagers. A new Pew Research Center survey of 1,458 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 found that nearly two-thirds reported using chatbots, including about three in 10 who used them daily.
Online platforms used by teens
Young people pay attention to various platforms, YouTube stands out in that almost every teenager uses it. Approximately 9 out of 10 people report using this.
Teens also widely use the other three platforms.
- Approximately 6 out of 10 people say they use it TikTok and Instagram.
- It is said that the somewhat small market share will continue in the future. snapchat (55%).
Uses less facebook (31%) and whatsapp (twenty four%). And at most 1 in 5 people say the same. reddit or × (Formerly Twitter).
Change over time
Today's online environment for teens is characterized by both stability and new trends.
WhatsApp is one of the platforms that has seen significant growth in recent years. Almost a quarter of teens now say they use WhatsApp, up from 17% in 2022.
X and Facebook have declined in usage over the past decade. 16% of teens now use X, down from 23% in 2022 and 33% in 2014-15. And Facebook, once the go-to platform for teens, is now used by about three out of every teen. This is on par with 2022, but much lower than the 71% in 2014-15.
The percentage of teens who use other sites and apps, such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, has remained relatively stable in recent years.
Read about teens' online experiences: Use of online platforms by demographic groups | Frequency of online platform usage | Utilization of AI chatbots | Frequency of chatbot usage | Internet usage
Use of online platforms by demographic groups
Teens' usage of specific online platforms varies by demographic group, including gender, race, ethnicity, age, and household income.
By gender
Teenage girls are more likely to use Snapchat and Instagram. For example, 61% of girls said they use Snapchat, compared to 49% of boys.
Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to use Reddit (21% vs. 12%) and YouTube (94% vs. 89%).
by race or ethnicity
All platforms except Reddit have differences in usage based on race and ethnicity. Black teens are more likely to use Instagram, TikTok, X, Snapchat, and YouTube than white or Hispanic teens. For example, 82% of Black teens say they use Instagram. This drops to 69% for Hispanic teens and is even lower (55%) for white teens. And black teens are more likely to use Facebook than Hispanic teens.
WhatsApp is used more by Hispanic and black teens than white teens.
By age
Older teens stand out from younger teens in that they use almost every platform we ask. For example, three-quarters of 15- to 17-year-olds say they use Instagram, compared to 44% of 13- to 14-year-olds.
YouTube is the only site measured to be equally likely to be used by older and younger teens.
By household income
Teens from low- and moderate-income households use TikTok and Facebook more commonly, a pattern similar to previous years.
For example, 46% of teens living in households with an annual income of less than $30,000 say they use Facebook. Similarly, 39% of households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 said the same. But for teens in households with incomes of $75,000 or more, this percentage drops to 27%.
By political party
A pattern seen in previous research by the center is that more teens who identify as Democrats say they use TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube than Republicans.
For example, there is a wide partisan divide when it comes to TikTok, with 75% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning teens saying they use TikTok, compared to 60% of Republicans and Republican-leaning teens.
Frequency of use of online platforms
YouTube is not only widely used but also the platform that most teenagers access on a daily basis. About three-quarters of teens say they use it daily.
A slightly smaller share is reported daily of transactions on two other platforms: TikTok (61%) and Instagram (55%).
Just under half say they access Snapchat every day (46%), and far fewer say the same about Facebook (20%).
Overall, teens' daily use of these platforms has remained relatively stable compared to past years.
Social media is not only a regular part of teenagers' lives; Some people report using these platforms “almost constantly.” About 1 in 5 teens say this about TikTok and YouTube.
Fewer people say they use Instagram and Snapchat on a near-constant basis (12% each). And only 3% say that about Facebook.
Across these five platforms; 36% of teens use at least one of these sites almost all the time.
Change over time
The percentage of teens who say they use TikTok has almost always increased slightly, from 16% in 2022 to 21% this year. The percentage reporting using YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook has remained largely unchanged since 2022.
By gender
There are differences between men and women in how often they use these sites and apps.
Slightly more teenage girls than boys report using TikTok and Instagram almost all the time. Teenage boys are more likely than girls to access YouTube this often (20% vs. 13%).
Similar percentages of girls and boys say they use Snapchat and Facebook almost all the time.
by race or ethnicity
Black and Hispanic teens in particular are more likely to report using TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram almost all the time.
For example, 35% of Black teens say they use YouTube most of the time, compared to 23% of Hispanic teens. Both groups are much more likely to say this than white teens (8%).
When you visit Snapchat or Facebook almost all the time, there are little to no racial or ethnic differences.
Utilization of AI chatbot
AI chatbots have become more commonplace in daily life, from education to entertainment. For the first time, we asked teens about their overall chatbot usage, how often they use chatbots, and which chatbots they rely on.
The majority of teens say they use chatbots. Almost two-thirds (64%) of teens say they have used an AI chatbot. Only a few (36%) do not use this tool.
Many teens are using chatbots, but there are some differences between different demographic groups.
- Race and ethnicity: Roughly seven black and Hispanic teens say they use chatbots, which is higher than white teens (58%).
- year: 68% of teens ages 15-17 use a chatbot, compared to 57% of teens ages 13-14.
- Household income: Teens living in households with incomes of $75,000 or more are more likely to use chatbots than those living in households with incomes of less than $30,000 (66% vs. 56%). People living in households earning between $30,000 and $74,999 are no different from either group.
Chatbot usage frequency
Approximately 3 in 10 teens say they use an AI chatbot every day, with 16% of them using it several times a day or almost all the time.
Daily use of chatbots varies somewhat by race, ethnicity, and age.
- Race and ethnicity: About one-third of Black (35%) and Hispanic teens (33%) report using an AI chatbot daily. White teens (22%) say the same.
- year: 31% of teens aged 15-17 say they use chatbots on a regular basis, compared to around a quarter (24%) of young adults aged 13-14.
Which chatbots are teenagers using?
In addition to understanding overall usage, we also asked teens about their usage of six specific chatbots.
ChatGPT (59%) is the most widely used chatbot by far The only one we measured is used by the majority of teens.
This is more than double the rate for the next most used chatbot. gemini (23%) and Meta AI (20%).
Few people say they use it co-pilot, character.ai and Claude.
by race or ethnicity
Black and Hispanic teens are more likely than white teens to say they use Gemini and Meta AI.
Black and white teens have some differences in how they use ChatGPT and Character.ai.
There is no big difference between using co-pilot or claude.
By age
Teens ages 15-17 are more likely to report using ChatGPT and Meta AI than teens ages 13-15.
By household income
ChatGPT use is more common among teenagers from high-income households. About 6 in 10 (62%) teens living in households with incomes of $75,000 or more say they use it. By contrast, 52% of teens live in households with incomes below $75,000.
Meanwhile, low- and moderate-income teens are more likely to use Character.ai. About 14% of teens living in households with incomes less than $75,000 report using it. This is double the percentage of teens in households with incomes of $75,000 or more (7%).
See the appendix for a complete breakdown of AI chatbot usage by demographic group.
Internet usage by teenagers
The study also looked at how often teens use the internet.
Nearly all U.S. teens (97%) say they use the Internet daily. 4 in 10 say they are online almost all the time.
The percentage of teens who say they're online most of the time is down slightly from last year, but it's now much higher than it was a decade ago.
by race or ethnicity
Black (55%) and Hispanic teens (52%) are nearly twice as likely as white teens (27%) to say they are online most of the time.
By age
Being online almost all the time is more common for older teens. 43% of 15-17 year olds report being online most of the time, compared to 34% of 13 and 14 year olds.
By household income
Teens living in households with an annual income of less than $75,000 are more likely to say they use the Internet almost all the time than teens living in households with an income of $75,000 or more.
There are no significant differences in internet use by gender.
