Instagram, Snapchat More Popular Among US Teens Than Facebook: Survey

It is not Facebook itself but its popular app Instagram - and its closest rival Snapchat - have become the most popular social media platforms among the teenagers in the US, a new survey has found.

The survey by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at University of Chicago found that 76 percent of American teenagers in the age group 13-17 use Instagram, 75 percent of them use Snapchat and only 66 percent use Facebook - essentially a flat figure from 2015 when Pew Research Center data showed 71 percent of US teenagers go to Facebook.

“Understanding how teenagers use devices like tablets, desktops and laptops may seem like old news,” said Amanda Lenhart, a co-author.

Instagram Stories Is Already More Popular Than Snapchat Itself

“But the varying degrees of access of different groups to these platforms have implications for education and future facility with tech tools, including those needed for the workplace,” added Lenhart, who is also a senior research scientist at The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

While almost all teenagers - 91 percent - use the regular text messaging tool on their mobile phones, 40 percent of them also use messaging applications like Kik, WhatsApp or Line on a smartphone.

“About 47 percent of teens use Twitter, fewer than 30 percent of them use Tumblr, Twitch or LinkedIn,” the survey found.

It was also highlighted that tablet access has surpassed the use of desktop computers among American teenagers, with 54 percent of youth having access to a desktop, compared with 68 percent of them having access to a tablet computer.

Laptops (80 percent) and smartphones (89 percent) are the most common devices that teenagers use to access the Internet.