Teens worry about the amount of time they spend on social media, but they’re using it more than ever

The Pew Research Center‘s latest check-in on teen social media habits reveals that U.S. youths are feeling conflicted. On one hand, they’re using major social platforms in greater numbers. On the flipside, however, teens are feeling increasingly anxious about the powerful effects social feeds have on their lives.

Pew’s teens-only update follows a more general survey of American social media habits. In that first report, Facebook was the second-most commonly used social platform (behind YouTube), but when older generations are omitted from the sample, the results change dramatically. Among teenage respondents, Facebook was one of just two platforms to see its overall adoption decline year-over-year (X is the other social giant showing a downward trend.)

As for the other six platforms charted for Pew’s latest study — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Reddit — a higher percentage of teens reported using those apps compared to last year. The most dramatic rise belonged to WhatsApp, which is now being used by nearly a quarter of U.S. teens. Three years ago, only 17% of teens were active on Meta’s encrypted messaging service.

So to make a long story short, teens continue to increase their social media activity across the board. About 20% of teens said they use YouTube “almost constantly,” and a similar number said the same about TikTok. On the whole, the percentage of teens who say they are constantly online is up to 40%. A decade ago, that figure sat at 24%.

Teens don’t necessarily feel good about those habits. Last year, nearly half of Gen Z respondents said that they wish TikTok had never existed, even as the app’s usage skyrocketed among that group. So what gives? Why do teens continue to rely on social media, even if they feel it negatively impacts their lives?

Nature provided one potential explanation. The scientific journal published the results of a study that examined “overestimates of social media addiction.” The researchers found that teens who perceive that they are “addicted” to social media have a harder time curbing or controlling their screen time.

The Pew data, on the other hand, suggests that some teens are finding the willpower they need to rein in excessive social media activity. Even though the percentage of respondents who are constantly online has risen dramatically over the past decade, that figure declined year-over-year between 2024 and 2025.

Those responses show that American youths are eager to regulate themselves, even if their current habits might suggest otherwise. The rest of us can help them out by being extra careful about our word choices. Excessive social media use may look like addiction, but branding it with that term is more likely to exacerbate problems rather than resolving them.