Shifts in U.S. Social Media Use, 2020–2024: Decline, Fragmentation, Polarization
3 months ago
- #digital trends
- #political polarization
- #social media
- Overall social media use in the U.S. has declined from 2020 to 2024.
- Youngest and oldest Americans are increasingly abstaining from social media.
- Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter/X have lost users, while TikTok and Reddit have grown modestly.
- Platform audiences have aged and become slightly more educated and diverse.
- Most platforms have shifted toward Republican users but remain Democratic-leaning on balance.
- Twitter/X experienced the sharpest political shift, with posting flipping nearly 50 percentage points from Democrats to Republicans.
- Political posting remains tightly linked to affective polarization, with the most partisan users being the most active.
- The online public sphere is becoming smaller, sharper, and more ideologically extreme as casual users disengage and polarized partisans remain vocal.