A quarter of all American teens are online “almost constantly” via mobile devices and smartphones, with most hooked on Facebook, according to a new Pew Research survey.
The survey of kids aged 13-17 also found that virtually all go online every day with just a tiny 2 percent saying that they use the Internet less than weekly.
According to Pew, 92 percent of teens report going online daily. Some 24 percent said they are on “almost constantly.” Fifty-six percent said they go online daily and 12 percent report once a day use.
It helps that they have smartphones. In its survey of teens, Pew found that “nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone and 30 percent have a basic phone, while just 12 percent of teens 13 to 17 say they have no cellphone of any type.”
The survey also found that more black teens that whites or Hispanics have cell phones. “African-American teens are the most likely of any group of teens to have a smartphone, with 85 percent having access to one, compared with 71 percent of both white and Hispanic teens,” said Pew.
And of those “mobile teens,” Pew found that 94 percent go online daily.
So where do they go online? No surprise, it’s Facebook. The survey said that 71 percent use Facebook, followed by Instagram, 52 percent, Snapchat, 41 percent, Google and Twitter, 33 percent.
And Pew found that girls like to use social media to chat way more than boys, most of which are playing video games.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
