Use of Social Media
Social media is a way for people to share information. An account can generally represent an individual, a company, municipality, or a group. While the three primary uses for social media are networking, socializing, and marketing; social media is also used to provide the public with information about city events, schools, traffic, new businesses, weather-related incidents, and new initiatives.
Social Media Statistics
Growing shares of U.S. adults say they are using Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Reddit, but YouTube still rises to the top. The vast majority of U.S. adults (84%) say they ever use YouTube. Most Americans (71%) also report using Facebook.[1] The newest site to see a surge is YouTube which is not a traditional social site but does have many social element. YouTube is now used by 73 percent of U.S. adults and 94 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds. Half of adults say they use Instagram, making it the only other platform in our survey used by at least 50% of Americans. Smaller shares use the other sites and apps we asked about, such as TikTok (37%) and WhatsApp (32%). Somewhat fewer say the same of Reddit, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter).[2] Over the past few years, four of them have grown in overall use among U.S. adults – TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reddit each with a respective adult internet users proportion of 37 percent, 50 percent, 23 percent, and 26 percent.[3]
As of November 2025, 84 percent of the U.S. public uses some type of social media platform.[4] We are in an age where grandparents, while sitting in the comfort of their homes, are able to visit their grandchildren who live 500 miles away over FaceTime or Zoom. Children today do not think twice about sending a video of themselves doing a hand stand to all their friends at school using SnapChat. Our workforce is adapting to the changes brought about by social media in their personal lives and we must help them adapt professionally in our workplaces and our communities.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.