A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 71% of American teens use Facebook, followed by Facebook owned Instagram (52%), Snapchat (41%) and Twitter and Google+ (both 33%).
There have been numerous reports about teens pulling back from Facebook but the Pew results show that teens continue to use the service in large numbers. It also found that most teens (71%) use more than one service, but among the 22% who use only one, two-thirds (66%) use Facebook. The survey didn’t ask how much time teens are spending on Facebook and other services but other studies suggest that teens may be spending a bit less time on Facebook as they diversify their social media use. Still, Facebook remains that “utility” that both teens and adults use on at least a somewhat regular basis. On average, teens have about 145 Facebook friends with 15% saying they have more than 300 friends. A typical teen Instagram user has 150 followers with girls having more followers than boys (200 vs 100).
Listen to Larry’s CBS News Tech Talk with study lead author Amanda Lehnhart
I was somewhat surprised to learn that boys (45%) are more likely to use Facebook than girls (36%) though girls are more likely to use Instagram (23% vs. 17%). I’m not surprised to learn that older teens (15-17) are more likely to use Facebook than younger teens (44% vs. 35%). Upper and middle income kids are more likely to use Instagram and Snapchat than kids from households earning $50,000 or less.
