Teen Social Media Use

The Pew Research Center conducted a study, "Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015: Smartphones facilitate shifts in communication landscape for teens.", byAmanda Lenhart, April 2015.

The study discovered a shift in the way teens access the internet and how they do it. The key findings highlighted the shift in access to the internet. Where teens primarily access the internet from computers at home, via laptops or desktops, the shift now has moved to mobile.

Key Findings:

• 24% of teens go online "almost constantly" via smartphones
• 92% of teens report going online daily
• 56% of teens go online several times a day
• 12% of teens go online once a-day.  

According to the report, what is fueling this access is facilitated by mobile devices. The report indicates that nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone and 30% have a basic phone, while 12%of teens 12-17 say they have no cell phone of any type. 

Who has access to the internet via a smartphone is also revealing and may indicate a potential shift in how prevention messages are crafted when it comes to internet safety for teens. 

• 85% of African American teens have access to smart phone. 
• 71% of White and Hispanic teens have access to a smartphone.

91% of all teens go online from mobile devices at least occasionally. Among the teens defined as "Mobile Teens", 94% go online daily or more often.  In comparison, teens who do not access the internet via mobile devices tend to go online less frequently, 68% go online at least daily.

Hispanic and African American youth reported more frequent internet use than white teens. African Americans teens, went online 34% of the time, "almost constantly." Hispanic teens are online 32%, "almost constantly", while only 19% of white teens go online often. 

What sites they are accessing most frequently has began to show a trend. Facebook remains the dominant force in teens social media access, as the increase to Instagram and Snapchat as more prominent in teens.  Teens relate they access the following platforms the most often

• Facebook, 41%
• Instagram, 20%
• Snapchat, 11%
• Twitter, 6%
• Google+, 5%
• Tumbler, 3%
• Vine, 1%
• Other, 1%

Socio-economic status also appears to play a roll in who and what sites teens access. Teens from less well-off households, earning less than $50,000 are more likely than others to say they use Facebook, where some 49%say they use it most often. In comparison, 37% of teens from somewhat wealthier families, those earning $50,000 or more.

As teens have adopted smartphones, the variety of communication methods and sharing they use has increased as well. Texting is an especially important method of communication for teens. Some 88% of teens have or have access to cellphones or smartphones and 90% of those teens with phones exchange texts. A typical teen sends and receives some 30 texts per day. 

The entire report can be viewed here.