Top Social Media User Trends And Insights in 2024

Written by Rob Sanders, via Simplilearn

The use of social media continues to grow in 2024. More than half the world’s population has an account on at least one social media network. That’s up 13.2 percent over the past year alone. And nearly all of them are accessing social media on their mobile devices.

No doubt about it, this is interesting data. As the adoption of mobile devices has increased across the globe, so has activity on social media — as users can more easily access their accounts from wherever they roam. 

Who are these social media users? They span nearly every age group, from most corners of the map, yet their behaviors and preferences can be quite different from each other. Let’s have a look at who’s using social media in 2024.

A Look at Users by Social Media Platform 

Even though Facebook continues to grapple with privacy issues, it remains the world’s most-used social media platform — a position it’s been claiming for the past decade. YouTube and WhatsApp have been closely trailing Facebook for almost the same amount of time.

Even more interesting, though, is this breakdown of U.S. social media users across platforms. It reveals user patterns by gender, race, age, income, education, and location. Across almost every demographic, there is a strong preference for YouTube — even above Facebook. Pew Research Center shows YouTube with the most significant growth across U.S. users.    

If your audience skews younger, you may also be interested in this data from OfCom in the U.K. It shows more than 74 percent of 8- to 15-year-old children use YouTube, and a whopping 89 percent of 12- to 15-year-old children do the same. These are impressive numbers for the video-sharing network.  

How Age Groups Use Social Media Differently

While people from nearly every age group have social media accounts, it’s the ways in which they use them that can differ. On a global scale, the most popular reason for using social media is to “stay up-to-date with news and current events,” but even that percentage is only 36.5 percent of all users aged 16 to 64.  

Here’s a look at social media preferences across different age groups:

• 65+: While this demographic may not be the largest user base on social networks, those who do belong to this group certainly favor the “social” aspect. Older users typically login to their accounts to stay connected with others and participate in conversations. Key topics among these conversations tend to be health and community.

• 50-64: Diversion and entertainment are the leading use cases for this generation of social media users, especially on Facebook. Socially active users in this demographic use Instagram to document their stories and promote themselves in a visual way, according to a study of U.S. adults in this age group.

• 30-49: As the group most likely to get their news from social media (particularly Facebook), those between the ages of 30 and 49 look to their networks for the latest updates — even more so than traditional media.

• Millennials: While this age range represents one of the largest social media user groups worldwide, there are significant differences in how these users interact with their social communities. In fact, within these millennial years, it’s far more common to see users spending more time on image-led platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. This demographic is also more likely to be involved with identity-forming content like posting selfies. This age group also tends to spread social media time across more platforms than other groups.

• Gen Z: The youngest age group shares the tendencies of millennials as far as sharing and interacting with image-led platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, but they also dominate on video platforms as well. YouTube, Facebook and TikTok are the main platforms where this generation spends their time, which can be up to three hours per day for some of this population.    

How to Apply Social Media User Data

Now that you have a better understanding of who’s using social media in 2024, you can apply this data to your marketing and advertising strategies. Consider what you’ve learned about various demographics across the world as you map those preferences to your own target audiences. If you can reach those likely to buy from you on the platforms where they spend their time — whether that means posting newsworthy content or sharing images and videos — you’re more likely to make valuable connections, build trust, and establish relationships with your customers.