Teens use Instagram more than Snapchat

If you ask any teenager what his or her favorite social media platform is, they will probably say Snapchat. After all, it was built for their lifestyles.

However, though they may claim they prefer Snapchat, teens actually use Instagram more. This coming from Piper Jaffray, an investment banking group that analyzes areas such as agriculture, financial services and technology.

According to the organization’s latest 2018 survey data, Instagram passed Snapchat as the most-used social media platform among teens. Micheal Sheetz, reporting for CNBC, pointed to the fact the data “found 85 percent of teens surveyed use the Facebook-owned social media platform at least once a month, just beating out long-time leader Snapchat at 84 percent.”

You can read more about the survey here: Instagram inches ahead of Snapchat in popularity among teens: Piper Jaffray

One interesting point Sheetz made highlighted how, though Facebook owns Instagram, the tides of social media use are dramatically changing:

“While Instagram is climbing, Facebook’s engagement among teens is getting crushed. Only 28 percent of 15-year-olds used Facebook in Fall 2018, down from more than 40 percent two years ago.”

According to Sheetz, this survey was the 36th bi-annual survey by Piper Jaffary. It polled about 8,600 teenagers across the U.S. The average age of respondents was 16. To see more information from the survey, look at this PDF created by Piper Jaffary: link.

Teens are an important demographic in terms of advertising and news consumption. They buy products, often to keep up with their peers, and if they can be convinced to subscribe to news outlets now, they are more likely to continue to subscribe later in life. In order to create engagement and relationships with any audience, you need to start by meeting them where they are. For the teen demographic, that means Instagram.

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About toddvogts 849 Articles
Todd R. Vogts, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of media at Sterling College in Kansas. Previously, he taught yearbook, newspaper, newsmagazine, and online journalism in various Kansas high schools, and he ran a weekly newspaper in rural Kansas. He continues to freelance as a professional journalist from time to time. Also, Vogts is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Journalism Education Association (JEA), and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), among others. He earned his Master Journalism Educator (MJE) certification from JEA in 2022. When he’s not teaching or writing, he runs his mobile disk jockey service and takes part in other entrepreneurial ventures. He can be reached at twitter.com/toddvogts or via his website at www.toddvogts.com.