As of September 2023, YouTube as the most popular social media platform for global users, with 97 percent of respondents reporting to use the popular video platform. YouTube was also the most popular social media among Gen Z users, with 96 percent of respondents in this age group reporting to have used the video platform as of the examined period. Facebook's usage kept steady among among the general digital population, with around eight in 10 reporting to have used the platform. In comparison, the social media's popularity was in free fall among gen Z users with only four in 10 among those surveyed reporting to engage with the Meta-powered platform.

As of September 2024 in the United Kingdom, 98 percent of Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, were using social media. The same was true for 97 percent of millennials in the country. Overall, 92 percent of Gen X were on social networks, as were 86 percent of Baby boomers.

A report held in June 2022 among Gen Z and millennials in the United States found that these consumers, aged 16 to 40 years old, were using Facebook most often, with ** percent saying they did so daily or more. LinkedIn, Twitch, and Nextdoor were the least used social sites for news, whereas YouTube and Instagram were used almost as often as Facebook in this respect.

According to a survey of social media users aged between 16 and 24 years in the United Kingdom, ** percent of respondents used the ********* mobile app daily as of October 2022. Approximately ***** in ** respondents reported using social video app TikTok and YouTube on a daily basis, respectively. New social app app BeReal, which prompts users to post content once per day, was used by less than ***** in ** respondents aged between 16 and 24 years.

Gen Z and Millennials are the biggest social media users of all age groups.

According to a survey conducted in the United States in 2025, Millennials made up ** percent of social media users in the country. Overall, Generation Z accounted for ** percent of the United States' social media audience, and Generation X made up ** percent. Additionally, Baby boomers accounted for just **** percent of users.

Introduction

Gen Z Statistics: Gen Z, iGeneration, or Post-millennials are individuals born between the mid-90s and early 2010s. However, many sources have yet to confirm their dates. This generation experienced growing up entirely in the digital era. Therefore, their behavior, thinking, and habits are different from those of other generations.

Surprisingly, it is easier to find a Gen Z with an internet connection, social media, or smartphone. These recent Gen Z Statistics confirm that these people prefer peace of mind and work-life balance and are more educated compared to other generations. These people are diverse in thinking. Therefore, it is difficult to understand their generations, as they are flexible towards everything.Â

A survey conducted in August 2022 found that Gen Z news consumers most frequently get their news from social media, with 50 percent of respondents reporting they used social networks as their news source on a daily basis. There was a general preference for online news sources rather than offline outlets among Gen Z, with only five percent saying that they read local newspapers every day.
News consumption: Gen Z vs. millennials The same 2022 study showed that whilst there were similarities between news consumption among millennials and Gen Z, there were also stark differences between the two groups. Gen Zers were significantly less likely to listen to the radio or watch television for news, and close to 60 percent said that they never read newspapers. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of Millennials reported listening to radio news and 15 percent watched cable or network TV on a daily basis.

Despite these differences, both Gen Z and millennial news audiences both demonstrated a clear preference for using social media to get their news. By contrast, Boomers were the least likely group to use social media for news, generally preferring network news for keeping up to date. Indeed, social networks are not without their problems, with consumers growing concerned about the news they find there. Social media and news Except for podcasts, social media is the least trusted news source in the United States. Fake news circulates there easily as consumers either unknowingly or deliberately share such content, and younger generations, who are the heaviest social media users, are at the highest risk of encountering biased, inaccurate, and untrue stories.

YouTube was the social media platform with the biggest reach among U.S. Gen Z and Millennial internet users regardless of gender. During the September 2019 survey, 95 percent of male and 92 percent of female respondents stated that they used the online video platform. In contrast, Facebook had a 70 and 78 percent reach respectively.

A 2024 global survey explored what Gen Z and millennial travelers thought of destinations they visited after seeing it on social media or promoted by an influencer. While ** percent of the sample mentioned that the destination was somewhat better than expected, ********* said that it was just as they had imagined it. Meanwhile, only **** percent of respondents mentioned that the visited travel destination was somewhat worse than expected.

The results might surprise you when looking at internet users that are active on social media in each country.

In 2021, messaging and video sharing platform Snapchat was more popular than TikTok among Gen Z users in the United States. TikTok counted around 37 million users who were born between 1997 and 2012, while Instagram reported around 33 million users in the same period. Snapchat, which counted 42 million Gen Z users, is projected to reach 49.5 million users in the examined demographic by 2025. Overall, platforms such as Pinterest, Twitter and Reddit had significantly less users amongst this age group.

Data from a survey held in August 2022 in the United States revealed that the most popular news source among millennials was social media, with 45 percent of respondents reporting daily news consumption on social networks. This was more than double the share who got their news via radio. When it comes to trust, though, social media does not fare well.

Social media and news consumption

As adults of all ages spend more and more time on social media, news consumption via this avenue is likely to increase, but something which could affect this trend is the lack of trust in the news consumers encounter on social platforms. Although now the preferred option for younger audiences, social networks are among the least trusted news sources in the United States, and concerns about fake news remain prevalent.

Young audiences and fake news

Inaccurate news is a major problem which worsened during the 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns and the COVID-19 pandemic. A global study found that most Gen Z and Millennial news consumers ignored fake coronavirus news on social media, but almost 20 percent interacted with such posts in the comments section, and over seven percent shared the content. Younger news consumers in the United States were also the most likely to report feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19 news. As younger audiences were the most likely to get their updates on the outbreak via social media, this also made them the most susceptible to fake news, and younger generations are also the most prone to ‘doomscrolling’, an addictive act where the reader pursues and digests multiple negative or upsetting news articles in one sitting.

Regional use of social media has a significant effect on the male and female social media statistics.

According to a survey conducted in the United States in July 2022,**************s of Gen Z adults had used ******* in the past month at least once a day, and ** percent had used the platform at least once a week. For TikTok, ** percent of respondents said they had used the platform every day within the past month. Additionally, ** percent of Gen Z adults said they had not used LinkedIn, and ** percent reported the same for Clubhouse.

56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.

A report held in June 2022 among Gen Z and millennials in the United States found that 57 percent felt that social media users had a great deal or quite a substantial amount of responsibility for the spread of misinformation about current events and important issues. More than 50 percent of respondents also felt that the news media, politicians in the U.S., and social media companies had a large amount of responsibility in this respect.

Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes today for people aged 16 to 64.

In 2023, Instagram claimed the top spot as the preferred social media platform for shopping among Gen Z and millennial consumers. However, Gen Z also showed an inclination towards shopping via TikTok, while millennials leaned towards both YouTube and Facebook over the trendy Chinese short-video platform. Conversely, older generations exhibited similar preferences for social commerce, with both favoring Facebook and YouTube over the more visually appealing Instagram and TikTok.

As of January 2021, 57 percent of 12 to 34 year olds in the United States were using Facebook, this is a decrease of seven percent on the previous year. Overall, 70 percent of those aged between 12 and 34 years were using Instagram, which is a two percent increase from 2020 and a four percent increase since 2019. As of 2021, Pinterest and LinkedIn both steadily increased their user base since 2019 amongst this age group in the United States. TikTok had the largest growth in audience, rising from 25 percent in 2020 to 44 percent in 2021.