Study shows YouTube dominates for US teens, while Facebook drops alarmingly

The music industry’s battle with YouTube over royalty rates is set to intensify after a new study by the Pew Research Centre found that YouTube is the platform of choice for American teenagers aged 13-17.

It rates 85% usage by the demo group, while Instagram is at 72% and Snapchat sits at 69%.

Facebook has dropped massively to 51% this year from 71% in 2015.

In 2015, Pew research put Instagram use at 52% and Snapchat at 41%.

Twitter and Tumblr remained the same in the past three years.

According to the study, use of social media has increased with the smartphone: 95% of American teens own or have access to one.

45% of teens say they are online on a near-constant basis.

However, there is no consensus on how social media impacts on the lives of teenagers.

31% put it at positive and 24% as negative, but 45% shrugged that it was neither.

In this, they are different to Australian 14-17 year olds.

In The Digital Me report by The Australian Psychological Society from last November, 60% rated YouTube as a positive experience, 58% with Instagram and 49% with Facebook.

Interestingly the Australian 14-17 demo hasn’t moved away from Facebook.

In fact, 80.8% said they used it, with YouTube at 72.4%, Instagram at 66%, Snapchat at 64.7% and Twitter at 27.6%.

The new US study can be found here, and Australia’s Digital Me here.