The social media preferences of teens and Gen Zers are well studied. But what about Americans over the age 50 – which social media platforms are they using? New research [pdf] from the AARP offers some answers.
Among these Americans, unlike their younger counterparts, Facebook remains the most-used platform. Some 71% of respondents ages 50 and older reported using Facebook, up from 68% a year earlier.
YouTube continues to be the second-most widely used social platform by this demographic, by 51% (relatively steady from 52% the previous year).
Interestingly, a couple of platforms more commonly associated with youth are trending towards higher adoption. Some 28% reported in this survey (fielded during September-October 2022) that they use Instagram, up 4% points from 24% the prior year and making this third-most used among this age group. An even greater relative increase was observed for TikTok, up from 10% in 2021 to 15% this past year.
By contrast, notably fewer are using Pinterest, with this figure falling from 25% to 20% between 2021 and 2022.
Finally, the share of 50+ adults who use social media has grown. The latest survey found that just 12% don’t use any social media platforms, down from 15% the previous year.
For more, check out the study here.
About the Data: The 2022 results are based on an online survey fielded from September 23-October 6, 2022 among 2,095 US adults ages 50 and older.
