ALAIN JOCARD/Getty Images
- The Pew Research Center surveyed American teenagers about social media and technology.
- Seventeen percent said they used Elon Musk’s social media app, X — a steep decline compared to a decade ago.
- More teens use Meta’s Instagram, Facebook, and, increasingly, WhatsApp.
American teenagers just don’t love X.
It’s one of the least used major social media sites among US teenagers, followed only by Reddit and Threads, according to a new study published by the Pew Research Center.
The Washington DC-based think tank surveyed nearly 1,400 teenagers between September and October to collect the data, which showed that 17% of teen respondents said they use X, a six-point decrease from 2022 when 23% of surveyed teenagers said they used the site.
Elon Musk purchased X, formerly Twitter, in 2022.
Representatives for X did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Other popular social media sites also saw a decline in use among teens.
YouTube, owned by Google, attracted the highest percentage of teenage users despite falling from 95% to 90% from 2022 to 2024. ByteDance’s TikTok came in second place with 63% of respondents saying they used the app, compared to 67% two years ago.
Snap Inc.’s Snapchat recorded 55%, another slight decline from 59% in 2022.
Instagram, owned by Meta, was used by 61%, about the same as two years ago, while Meta’s Facebook also held steady at 32%. Reddit also remained consistent, with 14% of teens saying they used the app, the same as 2022.
Threads, which Meta launched in 2023, was used by 6% of teens.
There was only one social media site that grew in popularity with teens over the past two years: WhatsApp.
The Meta-owned messaging app went from 17% of teens saying they used it in 2022 to 23% this year — overtaking X in teenage users, according to the Pew surveys.
Meta, then Facebook Inc., bought WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014, an investment that the company says is finally paying off.
On Meta’s quarter-three earnings call in November, the company reported a 48% year-over-year increase in non-advertising revenue that was largely attributed to WhatsApp.
The revenue boost was mostly due to the app’s product that allows businesses to pay to chat directly with customers.
But WhatsApp is also known to be great for large group chats, which have become increasingly popular with teens.
