Buh-bye, Facebook: Teens favor YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat

A recent Pew survey shows that roughly half of teenagers use Facebook, down by 20 percent from a 2014-2015 survey. Instead, mobile-first platforms are winning their attention.

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Nearly half the teenagers in the United States (45 percent) are online almost constantly—but many have left Facebook in favor of other platforms.

A recent survey by Pew Research Center revealed that 51 percent of teenagers ages 13 to 17 use Facebook—a drop of 20 percent from Pew’s 2014-2015 survey.

Pew Research reported:

The social media landscape in which teens reside looks markedly different than it did as recently as three years ago. In the Center’s 2014-2015 survey of teen social media use, 71% of teens reported being Facebook users. No other platform was used by a clear majority of teens at the time: Around half (52%) of teens said they used Instagram, while 41% reported using Snapchat.

Now, teenagers are embracing visual- and mobile-first platforms.

YouTube emerged as teens’ preferred platform, with 85 percent saying they use it and 32 percent reporting they use it most often. Seventy-two percent of teens said they use Instagram (15 percent said they use it most often), and 69 percent of teens use Snapchat (35 percent said most often).

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