For years we have heard how video content was going to be the best way to build an audience and engage with them and now we have some data to support that stance, albeit limited.

The data comes from Pew Research which surveyed 1 316 US teens between the ages of 13 and 17 to see how they use social media. The king of social media is YouTube with 95 percent of teens saying they have at least used the platform. TikTok is second with 67 percent of teens reporting they have used the app followed by Instagram with 62 percent of teens having ever used the platform.

Curiously, that’s the only Meta product that ranks that highly. Facebook was only ever used by 32 percent of US teens and WhatsApp was only used by 17 percent. It’s here that we need to enthusiastically highlight that this data is from the US and shouldn’t be seen as a snapshot of the global population.

“Fully 35% of teens say they are using at least one of them [social media websites or apps] ‘almost constantly.’ Teen TikTok and Snapchat users are particularly engaged with these platforms, followed by teen YouTube users in close pursuit. A quarter of teens who use Snapchat or TikTok say they use these apps almost constantly, and a fifth of teen YouTube users say the same. When looking at teens overall, 19% say they use YouTube almost constantly, 16% say this about TikTok, and 15% about Snapchat,” writes Pew.

Looking at gender, teen girls are more likely to use TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat while teen boys are more likely to use Twitch and Reddit. Boys also tend to use YouTube more than girls

The study also found that 95 percent of teens surveyed have access to a smartphone, 90 percent have access to a desktop or laptop and 80 percent have access to a console.

This research doesn’t look at why teens choose the platforms they do and we aren’t going to infer anything here based on anecdotal observations.

However, it’s clear that Facebook has fallen out of favour drastically. While the platform was used at least once by 71 percent of teens in 2015, that number is down to 32 percent in 2022. This could be down to the advertising, the user experience and of course, the fact that a teen’s parents are on Facebook.

Thankfully Meta’s other property, Instagram saw some gains (52 percent in 2015 to 62 percent in 2022), but it’s unclear whether this is long term growth.

The social network recently had to walk back a redesign that made it look more like TikTok amid cries for Instagram to give users a chronological timeline.

While YouTube is the powerhouse here, it would be silly to ignore the power of TikTok, even if lawmakers aren’t fans of the platform.