The popularity and use of social media is a global phenomenon and has grown exponentially over the last few decades. Pew Research has recently published a survey of how Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. THe study explores the patterns and trends shaping the social media landscape.
Eighty-four percent of U.S. adults say they use YouTube and 71% use Facebook, according to Pew Research Center’s 2025 national survey.
Who uses each social media platform?
Usage of the major social media platforms varies by factors such as age, gender and level of formal education.
An August 2026 article in Forbes, entitled “Top Social Media Statistics And Trends” concluded similar results about the popularity of social media but also researched the data that looked beyond user counts and follower growth to the broader social media statistics shaping the industry. (Forbes data comes from Q1 2026 earnings reports and other reported industry data.)
Important Social Media Statistics (Sources: Forbes)
The typical user (3.79 billion people) is active on an average of 6.5 different platforms each month
The average person spends about 18 hours and 36 minutes per week on social media, roughly 2 hours and 39 minutes a day
Meta’s daily active people across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp hit 3.56 billion in Q1 2026. An increase of 4% year-over-year.
YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used platforms among U.S. adults Per Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, 84% of U.S. adults say they use YouTube and 71% say they use Facebook, easily the two largest audiences. Instagram comes in third at 50%, with TikTok at 37% and WhatsApp at 32%.
Over half of fans say social media is their primary way of discovering new content. Deloitte’s 2026 Digital Media Trends survey found that 52% of self-identified “fans” (people who follow a show, artist, franchise, etc.) say social media is the main way they discover new TV shows, movies, music, games or events. That figure jumps to 73% among Gen Z fans specifically.
Social Media Platform Statistics
Meta’s advertising-driven revenue hit $56.31 billion in Q1 2026, up 33% year-over-year. Average price per ad also climbed 12% year-over-year, a sign that even with user growth slowing, advertiser demand for space on Meta’s platforms is intensifying. Facebook’s total video watch time grew more than 8% globally in Q1, which is the largest quarterly jump in four years, while Instagram Reels time spent rose 10% following ranking changes made the same quarter.
More than 8 million advertisers now use at least one of Meta’s AI ad creative tools, with especially strong adoption among small and medium-sized businesses.
Snapchat’s global daily active users hit 483 million in Q1 2026, up 5% year-over-year.
Monthly active users climbed to 956 million, also up 5%, while revenue reached $1.53 billion for the quarter, up 12% year-over-year.
Reddit’s daily active user base grew 17% year-over-year to 126.8 million in Q1 2026. Revenue grew even faster, up 69% year-over-year to $663 million, with advertising revenue specifically climbing 74% to $625 million, among the fastest ad-revenue growth rates of any major platform this year.
Pinterest hit an all-time high of 631 million global monthly active users in Q1 2026, up 11% year-over-year. Pinterest has now posted 10 consecutive quarters of double-digit user growth, reinforcing its steady transformation into one of the web’s largest product discovery platforms. Revenue grew 18% year-over-year to $1.01 billion, and the platform now sees more than 80 billion monthly searches, roughly half of which are commercial in intent, a meaningful signal for businesses thinking about product discovery.
Pinterest’s leadership also noted that Gen Z now makes up more than 50% of its user base and is its fastest-growing demographic, and that ad impressions grew 24% year-over-year even as average ad pricing declined 5%, meaning more inventory at a relatively lower cost per impression right now
Instagram is the platform marketers say drives results across the board
In HubSpot’s 2026 survey of over 1,100 social media marketers, Instagram led every major performance metric marketers track, including awareness, engagement, traffic, lead generation, revenue, community growth and brand sentiment. It also has the highest adoption rate among marketers at 80%, followed by Facebook (66%), YouTube (60%) and TikTok (57%).[8]
LinkedIn may have lower overall marketer adoption than Instagram or Facebook, but it remains the most-used B2B platform
Influencer Marketing Statistics
67% of marketers currently work with or plan to work with influencers, and 60% expect to increase influencer investment in 2026
When choosing creators, brands prioritize content quality, engagement rate and authenticity. Follower count actually ranks fourth in importance.
Social Media and Mental Health Statistics
Nearly half of U.S. teens say social media has a mostly negative effect on their peers, up sharply from 2022
Pew Research Center’s April 2025 survey found 48% of teens ages 13–17 say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, up from 32% when the same question was asked in 2022. Only 14% say it negatively affects them personally, though that’s also risen from 9% in 2022.
45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media
That’s up from 36% in 2022, suggesting teens themselves are increasingly aware of and concerned about their own usage patterns, even as most describe the personal impact as neutral rather than negative.[9]
Most teens still see real upside: 74% say social media helps them feel more connected to friends
And 63% say it gives them a place to express their creative side. The picture Pew Research Center’s data paints isn’t one-sided. Teens report real benefits alongside the concerns.[9]
The biggest changes in social media aren’t limited to the platforms themselves. They’re also changing how marketers create content, run campaigns and measure success.
Social Media Marketing Trends
Brand awareness is now the #1 goal for 59% of social media marketers, more than double the 29% who ranked it first in 2025.
94% of social media marketers now use AI in their workflows in some capacity.
Sources:
- Meta First Quarter 2026 Earnings
- Pew Research Social Media Fact Sheet
- Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-statistics/#sources
- Webtonic. https://www.webtonic.io/blog/social-media-usage-statistics-united-states
- Deloitte 2026 Digital Media Trends
- Snap Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings
- Reddit First Quarter 2026 Earnings
- Pinterest First Quarter 2026 Earnings
- HubSpot 2026 Social Media Trends Report
- Pew Research Center