Teens shun X and Facebook as TikTok and WhatsApp gain steam, according to reports.

A survey released lately by the Pew Research Center states that, to millions of teenagers in America, about half said that they tend to be online most times. The main focus is on YouTube when it comes to this age group, but over the decade, there are a number of reports of teens spending their lives constantly moving into the Internet.

However, the current number stands at about 50%—an increase from ten years ago, when only 25% would say that they were constantly online. Notably, 96% of the surveyed say they use the Internet nearly every day.

Atop this popularity list comes TikTok, marking a second position among American teens, seeing 63% of them interested. Much more complicated, however, is the picture for TikTok: The US Court of Appeals recently denied its application for reconsideration concerning the law compelling it to sell itself to new owners by January 19, failing which it would be shut down in the US. Such legal tussles weigh heavily on its standing in the competition for social media. At number three comes Instagram, with 61% of teenagers using the app, and then Snapchat at fourth, occupying the space of 55% over teenagers using the app to communicate. 

Facebook, bold in the glorious age of social networking, has, at least in the past two years, kept steady at about 32% of its teen users. On the other hand, WhatsApp has got the boost among teenagers—from 17% in 2022 to 23% now. That development shows a shift from the traditional footprints of social media to bigger group messaging and talk.

On the contrary to that, X, i.e., Twitter, drew different sections of young users, and at present, only 17% of teens, in effect, use the service, which means a 5% decrement in utilization from the previous two years. Second least engaging is Reddit, with a meager 14% of teens making use of the platform, which is an improvement from just 6% for Threads.

The major concerns now revolve around the tendency of extremely high Internet use among teens. Recently, Australia set an age limit for accessing social media, which most people consider as <16 because it shows concern for youth and children since they are no longer connected most of the time.

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