Facebook’s foundation in 2004 makes today’s teenagers the first generation to have grown up with social media. And while plenty of older people are avid users of Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms, no other generation has social media and technology so deeply engrained into their everyday lives as those born after the turn of the century.
According to a report published by Common Sense Media, social media usage among teenagers has drastically increased between 2012 and 2018. A survey conducted in the U.S. earlier this year showed that 70 percent of teenagers (13-17) check social media several times a day, up from just 34 percent in 2012. More astoundingly, however, 16 percent of today’s teens admit to checking their social feeds nearly constantly and another 27 percent do so on an hourly basis.
It is hard to say how much social media use is too much, but constantly checking for likes, comments or new posts by friends certainly has an effect on young people and many studies suggest that it’s not a positive one. Social media and device addiction are an important issue in the internet age and it will take an effort by the industry as well as the users themselves to tackle it head on.
Felix Richter
Data Journalist
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