Snapchat Rising: Survey Shows Surging Popularity Among Teens

By: Miranda Shulman

October 24, 2017

Snapchat is far and away the preferred social media platform of American teenagers, according to Piper Jaffray’s semiannual “Taking Stock With Teens” survey.

As you can see in the below chart, Snapchat is the only major platform to see an increase in popularity among teenagers over the past two years. In spring of 2015, only 11% of teens preferred Snapchat to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Now, in the fall of 2017, 47% of teens said it’s their favorite, marking an impressive 36% leap in popularity.

Instagram saw a drop from 29% to 24% from 2015 to 2017, while Facebook’s popularity fell from 12% to 9% in that span. But the biggest loser in the survey was Twitter, which saw its popularity among teens decline from 21% in the Spring of 2015 to just 7% in the most recent survey—a whopping 14% drop.

The survey, which was distributed by teachers to students from average income ($55,000) or high-income ($101,000) households, polled 6,100 teens.

Contact Miranda: @miranda_shulman