The Social Media Generation Gap

While virtually everybody is on social media these days, people from different generations live in parallel online universes, where older users mostly stick to Facebook and YouTube and younger users spread their use across numerous platforms.

According to Statista Consumer Insights, YouTube and Facebook are the two platforms that Americans across generations can agree on, with at least 7 in 10 social media users of all age groups having used both platforms in the past three months.

Things look decidedly different for Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X, where Gen Z users are significantly more active than older social media users. The difference is most striking on Snapchat, which 69 percent of Gen Z social media users report using compared to just 8 percent of Baby Boomers and 27 percent of Gen X users.