Facebook edged out of top 3 social networks by U.S. teens

Facebook is losing ground among U.S. teenagers ages 13-17. According to a Pew Research Report released today, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube are now more popular than Facebook, a social network with more than two billion monthly active users worldwide.

Among teens that took part in the survey, 85 percent say they use YouTube, followed by 72 percent for Instagram, 69 percent for Snapchat, and 51 percent for Facebook.

Though the Facebook app was edged out of the top 3 among teens, Facebook Inc. is Instagram’s parent company.

Only 10 percent of teenagers who took part in the survey said they use Facebook more than any other social media app.

Numbers released today stand in sharp contrast to the last time Pew conducted the poll. In 2015, Facebook was still most popular among teens, garnering 71 percent of the 13-17 audience, more than any other social network. Back then, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter were the most popular social media apps among teenagers.

The survey of 743 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 was conducted between March 7 and April 10, according to Pew.

Smartphone penetration has intensified since the last time Pew conducted its poll, with 95 percent of teens today reporting that they have a smartphone, compared to nearly 75 percent in 2015.

Forty-five percent of teens say they’re online on a near-constant basis, compared to 24 percent in 2015, but teens aren’t the only ones consuming large amounts of digital content. The Internet Trends Report from Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker released yesterday found that average time spent using social media has increased from 90 minutes in 2012 to 135 minutes in 2017.

The amount of time adults spend on digital media per day has grown from 2.7 hours in 2008 to 5.9 hours in 2017.