Teenagers have abandoned Facebook in favour of other social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. Just 51% of US individuals aged 13 to 17 say they use Facebook - a dramatic plunge from the 71% who said they used the social network in Pew's previous study in 2015, when it was the dominant online platform.
In this year's study, reported Facebook use was, according to Pew, "notably lower" than the percentage of teens who said they used YouTube (85%), Instagram (72%) or Snapchat (69%). In the previous study, just 52% of teens said they used Instagram, while 41% said they used Snapchat. YouTube was not included in the 2014-2015 survey.
Use of Facebook was markedly higher among lower-income teens, with 70% of those living in households earning less than $30,000 (€25,700) a year using the platform, compared with just 36% of those whose annual family income is $75,000 (€64,200) or more.