Facebook continues to be the most popular social media site, according to Pew Research Center. According to Pew’s Facebook usage date, nearly 8 in 10 online Americans (79%) and 68 percent of the total population use Facebook. Facebook’s share was more double the share for those that follow – Instagram (32%), Pinterest (31%), LinkedIn (29%) or Twitter (24%).
Pew Center researchers have been tracking and analyzing the rising trend of social media use in the U.S. since 2012, including which sites and platforms have been proving to be the most popular. This year’s data was collected from a nationwide sample of 1,520 carried out between March 7 and April 4.
Facebook Usage
Facebook’s market share appears to be on the rise as older Americans join the site. More than 6 in 10 (62%) online adults 65 or older now use Facebook, up 14 percent from 48 percent in 2015. More broadly, the number of online Americans using Facebook increased seven percent this year as compared to last, Pew researchers found.
People are also using Facebook more frequently: those who check their accounts daily increased slightly over the past year – 76 percent this year as compared to 70 percent in 2015. Women continue to use Facebook more frequently than men: 83 percent of female Internet users have Facebook accounts as compared to 75 percent of males.
Turning to the second most popular social media site, Instagram is especially popular among younger adults in comparison with other leading social media sites.
About 6 in 10 online U.S. adults 18-29 (59%) use Instagram. That’s nearly double the one-third of those 30-49 and more than seven times that for the 8 percent 65 and older. Female Internet users are more likely to use Instagram as well: 38 percent as compared to 26 percent of their male counterparts.
The share of online Americans using Pinterest held steady at 31 percent year-over-year in 2016. Women continue to use Pinterest most: nearly half (45%) of online American women reported using the social media board, more than double that for men (17%).
Younger Americans are also more likely than older Americans to be on Twitter, whose overall market share rose to 24 percent in 2016 as compared to 23 percent in 2015, a change Pew considers insignificant. About 36 percent of online adults 18-29 use Twitter, more than triple that among online adults 65 and older, just 10 percent of whom use it.
Twitter also tends to be more popular among the educated, according to Pew’s findings: 29 percent of Internet users with college degrees use Twitter as compared to 20 percent of those with high school degrees or less formal education.
The share of online Americans using LinkedIn also rose, but not substantially, year-over-year, Pew’s latest research data reveals – 29 percent in 2016 as compared to 2015. The social media site continues to be especially popular among college grads and professionals earning high incomes.
Half of online adults with college degrees have LinkedIn accounts as compared to 27 percent who have attended but haven’t graduated from college and just 12 percent among those with high school degrees or less. Similarly, 45 percent of online adults reporting household incomes of $75,000 or more said they use LinkedIn. That compares to 21 percent of households with annual reported incomes totaling less than $30,000.
Smartphone Apps
In sum, Pew highlighted that social media users continue to use a variety of sites. More than half (56%) said they use more than one of the five covered in Pew’s research. That’s statistically unchanged from 52 percent in 2014.
In addition, American smartphone owners are increasingly turning to mobile platforms and apps that incorporate sharing features as well as online messaging. According to Pew’s latest market research:
- 29% of smartphone owners use general-purpose messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Kik. Due to a change in how this question was asked, this figure is not directly comparable to a previous measure collected in 2015.
- 24% use messaging apps that automatically delete sent messages, such as Snapchat or Wickr. This represents a 7-point increase from a survey conducted in 2015 (at that point 17% of smartphone owners used these apps).
- 5% use apps that allow people to anonymously chat or post comments, such as YikYak or Whisper. This is the first time Pew Research Center has asked about these types of apps.