According to a January 2018 survey from Pew Research Center, the most-used social networks by adults overall in the US are YouTube and Facebook. However, when the results are broken down by age group, there are differences.
The report data, which came from a survey of 2,002 adult age 18 and older living in the US, found that 73% of adults use YouTube and 68% use Facebook. Overall, social media is used by:
- 88% of people age 18-29
- 78% of people age 30-49
- 64% of people age 50-64
- 37% of those age 65+
For different age groups, the results look like this:
- 18-24 years old: 78% use Snapchat, 71% use Instagram and 45% use Twitter
- 25-29 years old: only 54% of this group uses Snapchat
Facebook remains the most popular social site -- 74% of its users visit the site daily and just over half of them visit the site multiple times per day. Although Snapchat is used by a smaller share of Americans, the percentage of Snapchat users who use the platform several times a day is almost the same as for Facebook, at 49%.
Most social media users use more than one network, with the typical (median) American using 3 networks. The number of networks used decreases from younger users to older users:
- 18-29 year olds use four sites
- 30-49 year olds use three sites
- 50-64 year olds use two sites
- Users 65+ use one site