Bessette/Pitney’s AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS: DELIBERATION, DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP reviews the idea of "deliberative democracy." Building on the book, this blog offers insights, analysis, and facts about recent events.
American teenagers spend hours online each day, with apps such as YouTube and TikTok dominating their attention. Thirty-five percent spend at least four hours a day on social media or playing video games. The amount of time teens spend engaged in these activities varies across households. The survey finds that teen girls raised by parents without college degrees are on more social media apps, spend more hours using them, and are less inclined to cut back than girls whose parents went to college, while among boys, the same divide emerges in the hours spent gaming.
The class divide in social media use may exacerbate existing inequalities instead of reducing them. Among teen girls, more active social media engagement is associated with negative personal outcomes, including less sleep, lower rates of reading, and lower feelings of personal satisfaction.
The majority of teenagers are spending multiple hours on social media every day. About four in 10 (39 percent) spend three or more hours of their day online. YouTube and TikTok are the most popular social media platforms teens visit. More than seven in 10 (72 percent) spend time on YouTube every week, while six in 10 say the same of TikTok. Gaming also eats up a significant portion of teens’ free time, although less so than social media. More than four in 10 (44 percent) teens spend at least an hour gaming every day.
Teen girls raised in less educated households are more likely to use Instagram (66 percent vs. 57 percent), Snapchat (49 percent vs. 44 percent), Facebook (31 percent vs. 15 percent), and X (12 percent vs. 6 percent). The education gap is largest in TikTok use. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of teen girls raised by parents without college degrees spend time on the app, compared with only about half (53 percent) of teen girls whose parents have college degrees. There is also a significant difference in the number of apps they use.[v] Forty-one percent of teen girls with non-college-educated parents report using at least four different social media apps, compared with 25 percent of teen girls raised by college-educated parents.
This same gap is also evident in the amount of time teen girls spend on social media. About one in five (21 percent) say they spend between one and two hours on social media every day. Thirty-nine percent of teens report they spend less than an hour a day or do not use social media at all. Teen girls whose parents did not go to college, however, log more hours on social media than any of their peers. Nearly half (49 percent) of teen girls raised by parents without a college degree report spending three or more hours a day using social media, compared with 36 percent of teen girls with college-educated parents.
Parental education is also correlated with teens’ efforts to reduce their screen time. Among girls, those raised in households with parents of higher education levels are more likely to report attempting to reduce their time spent online. Nearly six in 10 (58 percent) teen girls raised by college-educated parents say they have tried to reduce their social media activity in the past 12 months. In contrast, only 40 percent of teen girls who have non-college-educated parents report attempts to lessen their social media activity.
There is no evidence of the same divide among teen boys; they report similar social media usage patterns regardless of parental education. More evident education divides show up in boys’ gaming habits. Teen boys raised by parents without college degrees spend substantially more time gaming. Nearly three in 10 (28 percent) teen boys raised by parents without college degrees say they spend an average of four or more hours a day playing video games. Among teen boys with college-educated parents, only 19 percent play video games this often. Among teen girls, it’s only 7 percent.
YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used online platforms. The vast majority of U.S. adults (84%) say they ever use YouTube. Most Americans (71%) also report using Facebook. These findings are according to a Pew Research Center survey of 5,022 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 5-June 18, 2025.
Half of adults say they use Instagram, making it the only other platform in our survey used by at least 50% of Americans.
Smaller shares use the other sites and apps we asked about, such as TikTok (37%) and WhatsApp (32%). Somewhat fewer say the same of Reddit, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter).
This year we also asked about three platforms that are used by about one-in-ten or fewer U.S. adults: Threads, Bluesky, and Truth Social.
Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, about half of U.S. adults (53%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, roughly stable over the last few years.
A small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok. This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.
In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.
TikTok, primarily known for short-form video sharing, has become especially popular among teens – two-thirds of whom report ever using the platform – as well as young adults.
32% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 say they regularly get news on TikTok, a higher share than in years before. This compares with 15% of those ages 30 to 49, 7% of those 50 to 64 and just 3% of those 65 and older. Dive into our findings: https://t.co/RqAYRRyLKwpic.twitter.com/iKXMTpqL0A
Some social media sites stand out for having high shares of users who regularly go to the site for news: 43% of TikTok users regularly go to the platform to get their news, up from 22% in 2020. Dive into our state of the news media fact sheet: https://t.co/b4E6Hk3gAupic.twitter.com/ov19U3v924
119. The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States. U.S. Const. art. 1, § 8, cl. 3. While the Commerce Clause is framed by its text [as] an affirmative grant ofpower to Congress , the so-called Dormant component of the Clause has long been recognized as a self-executing limitation ofthe States to enact laws imposing substantial burdens on [interstate] commerce ." South-Central Timber Dev.,Inc. v.Wunnicke ,467 U.S.82 ,87 (1984).
120. The TikTok Ban imposes substantial burdens on interstate commerce
inviolation of the Commerce Clause and other structural provisions ofthe
Constitution by prohibiting Plaintiff from operating TikTok in Montana and
penalizing Plaintiff any time a user in Montana accesses TikTok or is offered the
ability to access or download TikTok in the State . The TikTok Ban is not limited
to Montana residents ; it applies to anyone in the State ,including those visiting or
merely passing through for work.
121. Substantial burdens on interstate commerce generally result from
inconsistent regulation ofactivities that are inherently national or require a uniform
system of regulation. Bernstein v.Virgin Am.,Inc.,3 F.4th 1127, 1135 (9th Cir.
2021) (quoting Nat'lAss'n of Optometrists & Opticians v. Harris,682 F.3d 1144,
1148 (9th Cir.2012)).
122. Plaintiff's operation of TikTok ,an application used by over 150million users in the United States ,including in every State, is inherently national in
scope and requires a uniform system of regulation, not one subject to the policy
decisions offifty separate States.
A small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok. This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.
In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022.
