The 18-Through-24 Age Group Continues to Be Drawn to Snapchat and Instagram

U.S. internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 are flocking to Snapchat and Instagram, usually on a daily basis, according to the new Social Media Use in 2018 report from Pew Research Center, released Thursday. Pew surveyed 2,002 U.S. adults about their use of eight online platforms—Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter and WhatsApp—and it found that 78 percent of respondents aged 18 through 24 use Snapchat and 71 percent use Instagram, with 82 percent and 81 percent of those users, respectively, doing so on a daily basis. 71 percent of Snapchat users aged 18 through 24 use Snapchat multiple times per day, and 55 percent do so with Instagram. YouTube was tops among user percentage in that age group, at 94. Other findings by Pew included: 68 percent of respondents use Facebook, with about three-quarters of them saying they do so on a daily basis. 74 percent of Facebook users visit the social network daily, down slightly from 76 percent in 2016, and 51 percent visit Facebook several times per day. Instagram posted the biggest jump since the last time Pew conducted a survey on social media use, in April 2016. 35 percent of U.S. adults say they use Instagram, up from 28 percent in the last survey. Not surprisingly, age plays a role. Pew found that 88 percent of respondent 18 through 29 use social media, with that figure sliding to 78 percent for the 30-through-49 age group, 64 percent for those 50 through 64 and 37 percent for respondents 65 and older. Snapchat showed dramatic changes by age group, with the aforementioned 78 percent of 18- through 24-year-olds who use the messaging application slipping to 54 percent among respondent 25 through 29. 41 percent of women said they use Pinterest, compared with just 16 percent of men. 50 percent of Americans with college degrees use LinkedIn, versus just 9 percent of those with high-school diplomas or less. The popularity of WhatsApp in Latin America extends to Hispanics in the U.S., as 49 percent said they use the messaging app, compared with 21 percent of African Americans and 14 percent of whites. 59 percent of respondents said it would not be difficult to give up social media platforms, with 29 percent saying it would not be hard at all. Meanwhile, 40 percent said it would be hard to give up these sites, and 14 percent indicated that it would be very hard to do so. The media American uses three of the eight social platforms studied by Pew, with a “substantial majority” of users of other platforms saying they also use Facebook and YouTube. About three-quarters of Twitter and Snapchat users also use Instagram. Pew associate director Aaron Smith, one of the authors of the report, said in a release announcing its findings, “Today’s social media landscape represents a mix of long-standing trends and emerging developments. As was true in previous years, Facebook remains the entry point to the world of social media for a majority of Americans. And in many cases, the share of Americans who use various social platforms has remained relatively consistent in recent years. At the same time, Americans today utilize a diverse range of online social platforms in addition to Facebook. And this is especially true of the youngest adults, many of whom have fully incorporated platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram into their social media diets.”