The video portal YouTube (owned by Google) and the Reddit forum platform were the social networks that experienced the most growth in the country throughout the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published this Wednesday by the research center Pew.
Meanwhile, Twitter ranks among the least used
Specifically, YouTube, which is the most popular platform among Americans along with Facebook, went from being used by 73% of the adult population in 2019 to 81% in 2021; While Reddit – aimed at a much more specific niche – went from 11% to 18% throughout 2020.
YouTube’s growth corresponds to previous market studies that already pointed to a significant increase in video consumption during the pandemic, while the case of Reddit can be explained by the change in the way of socialization of young people, the main users of the platform.
In addition, Reddit was the network in which the so-called “GameStop phenomenon” was created between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, in which hundreds of thousands of small investors bought shares of companies undervalued on Wall Street such as GameStop, AMC or BlackBerry their price shot up in the market.
The second most used social network by Americans (only behind YouTube) is Facebook, to which 69% connect regularly, although the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has barely gained new users since 2016.
At a considerable distance are Instagram (owned by Facebook) with 40%; Pinterest, with 31%; LinkedIn, with 28%; and Snapchat, with 25%.
You have to go down to seventh position to find Twitter, since only 23% of Americans say they regularly connect to the blue bird social network.
China’s TikTok, which the previous Donald Trump Administration (2017-2021) viewed as a threat to US national security, is used by 21% of the country’s adult population.
If only the young adult population is taken into account, that is, those between 18 and 29 years old, the statistics vary significantly, and the use of Instagram (71%), Snapchat (65%) and TikTok ( 48%).
The Pew report was made from surveys of 1,502 American adults by telephone between January 25 and February 8, 2021 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
