Pew: YouTube topples Facebook for No. 1

A new Pew Research Center survey pegged YouTube usage by Americans at 73 percent while the share that use Facebook is 68 percent.

“As has been the case since the Center began surveying about the use of different social media in 2012, Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68 percent) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis. With the exception of those 65 and older, a majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups now use Facebook,” said Pew.

“But the social media story extends well beyond Facebook. The video-sharing site YouTube – which contains many social elements, even if it is not a traditional social media platform – is now used by nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults and 94 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds,” Pew added.

In a similar survey last year, Pew said YouTube was also the second biggest social media source for news. “Overall, Facebook outstrips all other social media sites as a source of news; YouTube now reaches second highest percentage,” it said, and the report included the following graphic.

A finding that social media developers might find disturbing is that users appear willing to abandon the sites.

Pew found, for example, that 59 percent of social media users feel that it would not be hard to give up, and 29 percent said it “would not be hard at all.”

Some 40 percent conceded that they don’t want to abandon social media.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]