Social media consumes modern lives. Almost everything we do whether this be school, work, leisure, will have a linked social platform. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become even more dependent on social platforms in recent years compared to before because all our interactions had to take place online. In the UK there are 48 million active social media users and studies show that the average UK user spends around 110 minutes on social media per day.
This switch from normal everyday life to living solely online in 2020 had a bigger impact on older adults than it did for teens and young adults who already had experience with social networks and understood how they work.
According to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults that took place in February of 2021, YouTube came out as the most widely used online platform across all age groups with 81% of U.S. adults saying they use it.
The statistics of this survey highlight the vast difference in specific age groups social media usage, and it is obvious which ones are more popular amongst older people. For example, age gaps in Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok are wider than they are in Facebook and YouTube. Only 2% of U.S. adults within the 65+ age bracket use Snapchat, whereas 50% of 65+ year olds use Facebook.
Perhaps the reasoning for these age gaps is dependent on when the platforms were developed. It seems that the earlier platforms like Facebook and YouTube are the most popular amongst the older generations, so as years have passed these adults have not kept on top of the more modern social media developments like TikTok.
Another reason for these age gaps could be because adults do not seem to have uses for modern social media platforms. Older Adults are less likely to be using the filter camera features on Snapchat that teens use it for, so these adults don’t feel they need to download it because they can just use WhatsApp.
Age is not the only factor that has an impact on the popularity of social media platforms, there are also gender gaps within social media usage. It seems that platforms involving creative media like Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok are more popular amongst women, whereas discussion-based platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp and Reddit are more popular amongst men. Pinterest has the largest gender gap with 46% of U.S. women using it and only 16% of U.S. men.
YouTube has a wide demographic because there will be videos for every type of person and many different topics. However, LinkedIn is a platform that does not have a wide demographic and the survey found that those with higher levels of education are more likely to have a LinkedIn profile compared to those with lower levels of education.
