Facebook, once the go-to social media platform for many, has plummeted in popularity among younger users, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
In a 2015 overview, Pew found that 71% of teens ages 13 to 17 used Facebook. It easily beat out platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter among that demographic.
But 2022 paints a very different picture of the social media landscape.
The share of 13- to 17-year-olds who said they use Facebook dropped from 71% in the 2015 study to 32% today, Pew found.
As Facebook's popularity sinks, YouTube has become the dominating platform among teens, who are also using social media apps like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. Instagram and Facebook are both owned by parent company Meta.
While Facebook still beats out Twitter among Gen Z teens, Snapchat and Instagram have dwarfed its popularity. Sixty-two percent of teens use Instagram and 59% use Snapchat, according to Pew.
TikTok also beats Facebook in popularity, with 67% of respondents saying they use the short-form video app, Pew reported.
A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately return a request for comment.
Although the share of teens using Facebook has shrunk, a large swath of adults say they still use the platform, according to other Pew research.
The most popular platform among 13- to 17-year-olds is YouTube, which is used by 95% of teens, the research found.
Representatives for Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When it comes to more specific demographics, like those who identify as boys versus those who identify as girls, Pew found that boys were more likely to use YouTube, Twitch and Reddit. Black and Hispanic teens use TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp more than white teens, according to Pew.
When asked about what app they used "almost constantly," teens, 19% of them, again pointed to YouTube as their most-used platform. TikTok was second in this category with 16%, followed by Snapchat with 15%, Instagram at 10% and Facebook at 2%.
A majority of teens, 54%, said it would be hard to give up social media, and 36% of teens felt they spent too much time on social media, according to Pew. Nearly all respondents, 97%, said they use the internet daily. That number is up from the 2015 report, in which 92% of teens said they used the internet daily.
