Media usage among teenagers in Germany - statistics & facts
Social media
Alongside the smartphone, a day might not go by when teenagers do not use one of the social media platforms or apps firmly planted in our digital landscape. While a variety of activities are undertaken on the internet, one that has increased in popularity over the past ten years is the use of social media, for a variety of reasons. Although initially it was mainly used as a form of keeping friends and family updated on life, now many people have turned their social media into a business. This means that they share their daily life online with their followers and often make deals with brands promoting various products. One of the most popular social media sites is TikTok, on this platform people post short videos that are between 15 seconds and three minutes long. In Germany, over half of 14- to 19-year-olds use the app regularly.Video streaming and non-digital pastimes
In 2024, Netflix and YouTube were the most used video streaming platforms to watch TV shows daily or several times a week, outstripping traditional television broadcasting and Amazon Prime Video.Print media usage, on the other hand, generally fell in the last decade, especially in the case of magazines and newspapers, though reading books, while fluctuating, mostly stayed within a roughly 40 percent rate. The leading German youth magazines ranked by sales volume were Bravo, Mädchen and Popcorn.
With media usage extending far beyond simply consuming news, especially among teenagers, who as digital natives are extremely quick with catching on to technological developments, consumption as such will continue to change. It will surely intensify further with the sheer volume of options and content available. The latter are massively powered by digital and online media. The issues that remain are monitoring use and designing it to be safe. This is a constant battle in a seemingly endlessly expanding digital space, and with media companies (whether digital or not) still looking to generate revenue through their teenage target audience.