A majority of Americans now say they get news via social media, and half of the public has turned to these sites to learn about the 2016 presidential election, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Over the past decade, Pew Research Center has documented the wide variety of ways in which Americans use social media to seek out information and interact with others.
The most recent Pew survey revealed that Americans are using social media in the context of work (whether to take a mental break on the job or to seek out employment), while also engaging in an ongoing effort to navigate the complex privacy issues that these sites bring to the forefront.
In addition to measuring the broad impact and meaning of social media, since 2012 the Center has also tracked the specific sites and platforms that users turn to in the course of living their social lives online.
In that context, a national survey of 1,520 adults conducted in March 2016, revealed that Facebook continues to be America’s most popular social networking platform by a substantial margin: nearly 8 in 10 online Americans (79 percent) now use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter (24 percent), Pinterest (31 percent), Instagram (32 percent) or LinkedIn (29 percent).
On a total population basis (accounting for Americans who do not use the internet at all), that means that 68 percent of all U.S. adults are Facebook users, while 28 percent use Instagram, 26 percent use Pinterest, 25 percent use LinkedIn and 21 percent use Twitter.
Thanks in part to the growing number of older adults who are joining the site, Facebook use appears to be on the rise: the share of online adults who report using Facebook has increased by 7 percentage points compared with a Pew Research Center survey conducted at a similar point in 2015. In addition, the share of Facebook users who check in daily has increased slightly in the past year: 76 percent of Americans who use Facebook now report that they visit the site on a daily basis, up from 70 percent in 2015.
Here are some other leading statistics from the Pew survey:
79 percent of internet users (68 percent of all U.S. adults) use Facebook. Roughly 8 in 10 online Americans (79 percent) now use Facebook, a 7 percentage-point increase from a survey conducted at a similar point in 2015. Young adults continue to report using Facebook at high rates, but older adults are joining in increasing numbers. Some 62 percent of online adults ages 65 and older now use Facebook, a 14 point increase from the 48 percent who reported doing so in 2015. In addition, women continue to use Facebook at somewhat higher rates than men: 83 percent of female internet users and 75 percent of male internet users are Facebook adopters.
32 percent of internet users (28 percent of all U.S. adults) use Instagram. Around one-third of online adults (32 percent) report using Instagram—roughly the same share as in 2015, when 27 percent of online adults did so. To a greater extent than the other social platforms measured in this survey, Instagram use is especially high among younger adults. Roughly 6 in 10 online adults ages 18-29 (59 percent) use Instagram, nearly double the share among 30- to 49-year-olds (33 percent) and more than seven times the share among those 65 and older (8 percent).
24 percent of internet users (21 percent of all U.S. adults) use Twitter. Roughly one-quarter of online adults (24 percent) use Twitter, a proportion that is statistically unchanged from a survey conducted in 2015 (23 percent). Younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to be on Twitter. Some 36 percent of online adults ages 18-29 are on the social network, more than triple the share among online adults ages 65 and older (just 10 percent of whom are Twitter users).
29 percent of internet users (25 percent of all U.S. adults) use LinkedIn. The share of online adults who use LinkedIn has remained steady over the past year: 29 percent report using the site, similar to the 25 percent who said this in 2015. LinkedIn has long been especially popular with college graduates and high income earners, and this trend continues to hold true. Half (50 percent) of online adults with college degrees are on LinkedIn, compared with 27 percent of those who have attended but not graduated from college and just 12 percent of those with high school degrees or less.
31 percent of internet users (26 percent of all U.S. adults) use Pinterest. Roughly 3 in 10 online Americans (31 percent) use Pinterest, identical to the 31 percent who used the platform in 2015. Continuing a long-standing trend, women use Pinterest at much higher rates than men. Nearly half of online women use the virtual pinboard (45 percent), more than double the share of online men (17 percent) who do so.
Other social media platforms. Other than this slight uptick among Facebook users, daily engagement for each of the other major social media platforms is generally similar to Pew Research Center findings from 2015.
Social media sites are not the only venue where people can connect with others online. Today, smartphone owners (at the time of this survey, 72 percent of American adults) can choose from a variety of messaging apps that fill many of the same functions.
Some of these apps look and function like a traditional chat or messaging service, while others offer unique features—such as the ability to post anonymously, or to have one’s posts expire or delete themselves after they are viewed.
In general, messaging apps are especially popular among younger smartphone owners. Some 56 percent of smartphone owners ages 18 to 29 use auto-delete apps, more than four times the share among those 30-49 (13 percent) and six times the share among those 50 or older (9 percent). Similarly, 42 percent of smartphone owners ages 18 to 29 use more general messaging apps like WhatsApp or Kik, compared with 19 percent of smartphone owners ages 50 or older.