Teens and social media: Key findings from Pew Research Center surveys

May 4, 2023

Some 32% say social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age, while 9% say this about social media’s effect on themselves. Image: Unsplash/Prateek Katyal

Risa Gelles-Watnick

Research Assistant., Pew Research Center

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Mental Health is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Mental Health

YouTube is the most common social media platform used by teens. Image: Pew Research Center

The different social media platform preferences of boys and girls. Image: Pew Research Center

Hours teens spend on the main platforms. Image: Pew Research Center

54% of teens say they would find it hard to give up social media

Just over half of teens believe they spend the right about of time on social media. Image: Pew Research Center

More teens believe social media has negatively impacted other people rather than themselves. Image: Pew Research Center

How social media makes teens feel. Image: Pew Research Center

Half of teens are in favour of bans or criminal charges for cyber bullies. Image: Pew Research Center

Older teen girls more likely not to post on platforms for fear of how information might be used against them. Image: Pew Research Center

Only a fifth of teens worry a lot about how their data could be used. Image: Pew Research Center

Almost 40% of teens believe social media is not as bad for them as their parents believe it to be. Image: Pew Research Center

71% of parents are somewhat or very about their children being exposed to explicit content. Image: Pew Research Center

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.