The Daily: How generations use social media—Gen Z’s actual favorite platform, the one Boomers are adopting the fastest, and more

Audio by Marcus Johnson, and Paola Flores-Marquez | Sep 17, 2024

Episode Transcript:

Paola Flores-Marquez (00:00):

You know, they've been on social media for 20 years at this point. MySpace was founded in 2004, and so millennials are so tired when it comes to social media. They're just not as adventurous in the same way as Gen Z-ers are. They're not really looking to pick up a new platform.

Marcus Johnson (00:20):

Hey gang, it's Tuesday, September 17th. Paola and listeners, welcome to the Behind the Numbers Daily, an EMARKER podcast. I'm Marcus. Today I'm joined by our demographics analyst based in New York. It's Paola Flores-Marquez.

Paola Flores-Marquez (00:36):

Hi Marcus. Thank you for having me back.

Marcus Johnson (00:38):

Of course. Welcome back to the show. Today's fact, why do we put candles on birthday cakes? Waste of time.

Paola Flores-Marquez (00:50):

Is it because candles symbolize the brevity of life in the long run, so we're trying to extend them by adding more? Starting out heavy. I came prepared today.

Marcus Johnson (01:01):

That is dark, Paola. Can't begin there.

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:05):

Yeah, but everything else from here is we just go up so-

Marcus Johnson (01:08):

This life gets blown out like a candle.

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:12):

Okay, but why? Why?

Marcus Johnson (01:14):

Okay. The real reason if you're still listening, that might've been too much for a Tuesday, is because at the origin of birthday candles, it can be traced back to Ancient Greece where candles were placed on cakes to honor Artemis, the moon goddess. So Greeks created cakes in the shape of the moon and decorated them with candles to represent moonlight. They believed their prayers were transported to heaven on the smoke.

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:41):

Ah, that's very fitting. Artemis was like, my username for so long as a teenager.

Marcus Johnson (01:45):

Really?

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:46):

Yeah, I was obsessed with Greek mythology.

Marcus Johnson (01:48):

Oh, cool.

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:49):

Oh, very fitting.

Marcus Johnson (01:51):

Look at that. Very nice. Wait, hang on. Really quickly, what made you choose that?

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:54):

What, Artemis?

Marcus Johnson (01:55):

Yeah.

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:56):

Oh, I mean, she's so cool. She's like...

Marcus Johnson (01:59):

Oh, a friend of yours, apparently.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:01):

Yeah. I mean, through books. Yes. Books are my friends. No, I mean, she just always seemed like such a powerful figure and so independent. And she can do archery, which I guess all teenage girls have an obsession with at some point. I don't know why. But yeah, I think she just, of all the pantheon, she always just felt like the most... I don't know. The most put together.

Marcus Johnson (02:23):

You say she could do archery?

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:25):

Yeah, she's known as the goddess of the hunt as well.

Marcus Johnson (02:27):

Wow. Okay. All teenage girls are obsessed, all teenage girls and Marcus apparently, because I was definitely into it as a kid too.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:34):

No way. Okay. I went to the Renaissance fair this weekend. I should have told you, I'm so sorry. I could've flown you in. Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (02:38):

Yeah, I need to hear all about that after the show. I'm glad that I picked that as the fact of the day specifically for you it turns out, which was perfect. Anyways, today's real topic, how social media use is different and changing by generation. So later on we'll talk about how Gen C, the generation defined by COVID, is different from others. But first, we start with how social media use is changing by generation. Paola, if we zoom right out, look at social media use across Americans, 68% of Americans are on social media. In four years time, it will be 71%, so it is ticking up over the next couple of years, slowly but surely. But we're going to be talking about what's going on amongst the different generations in terms of their effective social media usage. Let's start with young Gen Z people. What was the most interesting finding from your research? Because you've just recently done some studying on this topic. What jumps out to you the most when it comes to Gen Z people and how they are using social media?

Paola Flores-Marquez (03:48):

So I think a lot of that growth that you talked about is coming from Gen z. They are catching up to millennials almost everywhere. They just surpassed them by a hair on YouTube and they're coming for them on Instagram, which is pretty wild because Instagram has just been a millennial-dominated platform for so long. Some of the biggest jumps that we're seeing are on Reddit. Honestly, Reddit is one of the biggest winners of this report because they're seeing gains all over with almost every generation. For Gen Z specifically, we are forecasting double-digit jumps on Reddit until 2028. So they're increasing very rapidly.

Marcus Johnson (04:25):

And they nearly catch millennials in terms of total number. So in four years time, Gen Z-ers will be close to overtaking the number of millennials on Reddit.

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:35):

Yes, correct. Yeah, they're going to hit, so they're going to jump from about a quarter of the generation right now, 26%, to 40% by 2028, which is just massive. Although we should sort of couch that with the sense that Reddit is a smaller platform. There just aren't as many users as the big boys like Facebook or Instagram. But it's very impressive and it kind of speaks to how it's benefiting from a shift in the digital landscape where people are looking for other spaces to find community, to find community discussion now that X is kind of continuing to dissolve and become nothing but bots. And then they're also looking for spaces where they can do in-depth research on whatever they're interested in. That's one of the biggest benefits across the board for all the generations, but specifically for Gen Z.

Marcus Johnson (05:23):

Did seem like that was a theme for Gen z is that they're using everything. And where you get to the older generations, one main one and maybe a secondary or a tertiary one, but predominantly 80, 90% of their use is on one major social media platform.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:39):

Yeah. I think TikTok still dominates completely when it comes to time spent. They're not on these all constantly. There's only so much time in the day. They do have a smorgasbord, and they're trying out new stuff. They're trying to find out what the next platform is, and they're even picking up on Facebook. I mean, it's one of the only generations that's seeing growth on the platform, and part of that is because the youngest of Gen Z is only 12. And so Facebook is such a fixture in social media landscape that you're like, yeah, it's kind of a given that you're going to sign up for it when you get on social media. Not for everyone, but as, yeah, you just pick it up. But also because when we look at the changing demographics of what the US looks like, a quarter of the population is going to be Latino in the next 50 years.

(06:24):

And so we're talking about a lot of people with a lot of international connections, and Facebook makes it really easy to stay up to date with everyone. And there's an aspect of local connection that Facebook offers that none of the other platforms can offer because it makes it really easy to connect with people in your neighborhood that are already vetted, so you can meet them up for buy nothing groups or Facebook Marketplace to make purchases or meetup groups or support groups for if your pet has an illness, or my personal favorite, Are We Dating the Same Guy, which is where you can go and check and whether you're dating the same person.

Marcus Johnson (06:24):

Oh, I did hear about this recently.

Paola Flores-Marquez (06:58):

Yes. And so it makes it really easy to connect with other peers that are kind of like, you know that they're real people compared to more anonymized spaces like Reddit.

Marcus Johnson (07:07):

Yeah, I think good points were taken though. We were talking about this on the weekly listen on Friday, Max Williams, one of our analysts was saying that Facebook has become, especially for younger people, a utility. And that's how they see it. They go to it not necessarily for entertainment, but for groups, for Facebook Marketplace, things like that. Which is why when they get to that age where they're allowed to get on social media, they are signing up to Facebook accounts even if they're not using it that much, way less minutes per day than they are some of the other platforms. I want to come back to something you said though, because one of the trends I pulled out for millennials, which we'll get to in a second, that group, I want to ask you what jumped out to you with that cohort.

(07:42):

But the thing that jumped out to me for them was exactly what you just said. Gen Z-ers officially laying claim to millennials native platform of Instagram as they take the majority share. Millennials have been the largest share of Instagram users since its inception you write, but Gen Z-ers will begin to outnumber them by 2025. So more Gen Z people using Instagram than millennials by 2025. US Gen Z-ers already have the higher penetration, so 73% of Gen Z-ers versus 70% for millennials, but total numbers will be higher as well. What's driving that? What are some of the reasons that Gen Z is going to overtake millennials on that platform?

Paola Flores-Marquez (08:20):

I think part of it is utilitarian in the same way that Facebook is, right? Instagram is so much easier to message on than TikTok. It's a little more complicated and a little more crowded. So Instagram does offer that. And I think there's also an aspect of instead of giving people your phone number, you kind of just give them your Instagram as well, and it makes it really easy to connect with strangers, but there's still a barrier where it's not super intimate. So there's that as well.

Marcus Johnson (08:44):

Yeah. A number of people who have asked me for mine, they'll be like, "Oh yeah, can I get your Instagram?" And I'd be like, "Oh yeah, I only have a phone number or email." And they're like, "Oh, okay. Nevermind."

Paola Flores-Marquez (08:44):

Get with it, Marcus. You can have so many more fans.

Marcus Johnson (08:57):

And they just walk off like I just evaporated in thin air.

Paola Flores-Marquez (09:04):

Yeah, no, they don't want your number.

Marcus Johnson (09:04):

I still exist as a person.

Paola Flores-Marquez (09:07):

Nope. Nope. It's not the same. There's more pressure with a phone because then you actually have to make conversation, whereas they can passively consume you through Instagram.

Marcus Johnson (09:14):

Exactly. Anyway, sorry, you were saying, was there anything else you wanted to add to that?

Paola Flores-Marquez (09:17):

Yeah, I mean, I think for Gen Z, those are the biggest things that we're seeing. And I think it's just such a massive contrast to millennials because they've been on social media for 20 years at this point. MySpace was founded in 2004, and some millennials are so tired when it comes to social media. We are just not as adventurous in the same way as Gen Z-ers are. They're not really looking to pick up a new platform like Snapchat and X are showing consistent declines. X is declining the fastest, which, due to a number of reasons.

Marcus Johnson (09:50):

And also, millennials are getting to the age now where they are hitting 40, so they're basically in their thirties and maybe a couple of a sea of years, late twenties, but they're running out of free time because of whatever responsibilities. And so you make this point that many millennials who are casual Instagram users have reduced their use of the platforms as they age, which I think is a really, really good point because millennials are no longer those kind of spring chickens that we think of.

Paola Flores-Marquez (10:17):

Yeah, they have less time, they have way more responsibilities. And I think there's also part of what comes with the life stage, which I've kind of noticed anecdotally, is that people just don't feel the urge to share their lives anymore as much. They don't feel the pressure to perform for others in the same way. There's still people who do. There are people who are definitely on their little influencer-like life, but for the most part, people just kind of are less visible when it comes to millennials online.

Marcus Johnson (10:45):

Yeah. So more of them, more Gen Z people on Instagram next year than millennials. But also, I mean, to what you were talking about, more time spent. Gen Z-ers 18 to 24 already spending more time than millennials, and they average about 43 minutes a day, which is close to double millennials time spent on the platform.

Paola Flores-Marquez (11:04):

Yeah. I think if there's anywhere that millennials can kind of claim to right now as a space where they're at the forefront of, it's probably social commerce, which is an extension of social media. So not a specific platform, but at the moment, adults, so millennials under 35, which I mean, kind of include a little bit of Gen Z because we don't see clean figures for generation share. But the largest share of social buyers in 2024 is made up of millennials under 35.

Marcus Johnson (11:33):

Okay, interesting.

Paola Flores-Marquez (11:34):

So it's about 23%. And so they're the ones who have the money to spend and they have enough trust in their navigation of the internet to sort of risk making that purchase that may or may not go through or may or may not be a scam. And so if it's a scam, then whatever, it's a loss, but they'll be fine.

Marcus Johnson (11:51):

Yeah. Really quickly to stay with the young people for a second, the thing that jumped out to me when it comes to Gen Z is that TikTok and Instagram are not their favorite platforms. It's YouTube by a long shot. 89% of Gen Z people watch YouTube. Instagram is way behind that in second place with 72% versus 89 for YouTube, and TikTok is right behind that in third. So I thought that was an interesting point. And then not just that, but YouTube is also, they beat other social platforms amongst children as well. People under the age of 12, which is Gen Alpha, they're cultivating quite group of new users from those younger kids, 58% of them using YouTube. Then it's TikTok with just 6%, which is a chart that you had in your report. So that next wave of people who are entering social media, YouTube is all they know, and so they're going very easily transition as they get older, continue their use on YouTube. And then it's going to be, all right, it's a fight for second place at this point.

Paola Flores-Marquez (12:57):

Yeah, I mean, think about it. Digital video was one of the first digital habits they could pick up. They were way too young to be on social media, but YouTube is so accessible, it's free, it's easy to navigate, and you can find anything, right? Whether it's lo-fi hip hop beats to study to or tutorials on how to fix your gutter. I don't know. I don't own a house. I don't know if that's accurate. But yeah, it's just so versatile and it's one of the default things to do when you're online. And also, it's a pastime, right? When you're with a group of friends, you just start playing, like, someone play a music video, someone play a funny sketch. It's just so versatile in that way. And I should also note that it has a high, it is the number one platform for every generation. Of all the platforms we track, every single generation, it ranks the highest. And it's, obviously Gen Z-ers use it way more than everyone else, but we cannot understate how deeply entrenched YouTube is in our modern culture.

Marcus Johnson (13:59):

Yeah. All right, so we've talked about the two younger generations, Gen Z, those who are around 12, 13 to 26, millennials who are about 27 up to the early forties. Then we move to Gen X. They're folks in their kind of mid to late forties and fifties. What stands out about this cohort when it comes to their social media use?

Paola Flores-Marquez (14:20):

One thing that I didn't include in the report that I wish I had is that I don't think people realize that Pinterest is Gen X's third most popular social platform after Facebook and Instagram if we exclude YouTube. But yeah, 30% of the generation is on Pinterest in 2024. It's not a massive amount, but it's still pretty notable considering Gen X isn't voracious in their social media consumption.

Marcus Johnson (14:42):

Yeah, yeah, that is interesting. I was trying to look through the Gen X data to see what trends jumped out. The one that I saw was that they spend almost all of their social media time on Facebook.

Paola Flores-Marquez (14:42):

Yes, that is correct.

Marcus Johnson (14:52):

They average about 25 minutes per day. That's compared to about 10 minutes on Instagram and even less time per day on TikTok. Outside of that, nothing jumped out to me. But Pinterest, yeah. The fact is-

Paola Flores-Marquez (15:03):

Yeah, that one caught me off guard because I think about Pinterest as like, oh, thematic stuff for decorating or whatever. But the thing is, yeah, we'll see, they are picking up a little bit of TikTok, and so TikTok, and Pinterest use is decreasing somewhat. So eventually TikTok use and Pinterest use will sort of cross paths, but for now, Pinterest is still a major space. And again, noticeable growth for logged in Redditors amongst Gen X-ers. So Reddit continues to be a winner.

Marcus Johnson (15:33):

Yeah. Let's end with the lead with Boomers. These are folks who are basically in their sixties and seventies. What jumps out to you about this group?

Paola Flores-Marquez (15:41):

TikTok. They are picking up TikTok, which is unexpected because even millennials don't pick up TikTok at the same rate. And so this year, we saw a 12% increase in Baby Boomer TikTok users, and we can expect to see another 11% increase in the next. And so I want to be clear that we're still talking about a pretty small amount of the population, about 9 million or so, so about 13% of Baby Boomers. But it's notable for them, right? Because they're not, I mean, only half of Baby Boomers use social media compared to over 80% of everyone else.So it is notable for them, and so it kind of does push back on the narrative that Baby Boomers are unable to pick up new tech, especially given how complex TikTok can be to learn.

(16:24):

And so part of it, I think, is that there is a subsection of Boomers that are much more technologically savvy than they're given credit for and they want to stay up to date with these trends. And part of it is that Baby Boomers are more likely to have grandchildren who want to keep in touch with them and want to connect with them. So we're also seeing maybe they set up the accounts for their grandparents and then once they set that up, they can navigate the rest and figure it out.

Marcus Johnson (16:46):

Yeah. This one jumped out to me as well because of the 1 million figure. 1 million, you write. American Boomers, people in their sixties and seventies, will adopt TikTok in the next year, reaching about 10 million by the end of 2025. You mentioned 13% of internet users. That's also, by next year, 20% of Boomers with a smartphone will be on TikTok.

Paola Flores-Marquez (17:07):

Correct.

Marcus Johnson (17:07):

It's not a number I would've guessed myself, so I think that's a really surprising and interesting stat from our forecasting team.

Paola Flores-Marquez (17:17):

Yeah. I think it's a reminder to not write them off, right? Because they often get excluded from a lot of like, how do we target this generation, but we're talking about a generation that is so financially strong and they have so much time on their hands now because a lot of them are retired or retiring. So we should really make sure that they're being attended to as well.

Marcus Johnson (17:37):

Yeah, absolutely. Our panelist's full report is called US Social Media Users by Generation 2024. Gen Z-ers lead the pack in social media usage, but some platforms are reaching saturation. You can head to Emarketer.com if you're a pro plus subscriber, or of course you can click the link in the show notes. That's all we've got time for the lead. Let's move to the fourth quarter of the show today. In other news, just the one story, how Generation C differs from the rest of Gen Z.

(18:08):

Story one. in an all business article, Rieva Lesonsky wrote about how Generation C differs from the rest of Gen Z. She explains that Gen C or Generation COVID, those 14 to 21 years old, were molded by the global upheaval of the pandemic. In the piece, she speaks with VP of research strategy, Lisa Morales Freed, at global market research Company, Sago, who says Gen C had a front row view of risk, financial change, and supply pressures for basic goods, which shaped their spending and savings postures. Paola, what's your take on this group called Generation C and how they might be different from others?

Paola Flores-Marquez (18:52):

My first take was the kids are all right. I think towards the end she talks about how they're a lot more willing to stand by their ideals when it comes to their shopping, and they're more critical I think, of where they're pursuing their interests, and so I don't think they differ that much from other people who have been in that position before because teenagers and young adults are idealistic I think by nature. That's just part of growing up or before you go into the world and are exposed to more nuanced situations.

(19:25):

I think when I think about the way in which millennials were shaped by 9/11 and the rise of social media, a lot of those ideals that we had at the time are still present and they've had a fundamental change in culture. We wouldn't be talking about a lot of social justice issues if it hadn't been millennials for sort of pushing them through when they were at that same time period that Gen C is in now. So I do think that it's important to pay attention to it because I think these are habits that they're going to carry on for the rest of their lives, but they will eventually sort of be not diluted, but definitely challenged and sort of couched as they get older. But we can see it as like, the goalpost, not the goalpost, or we can see it as the direction in which they're headed.

Marcus Johnson (20:10):

Yeah, I thought this was a good reminder that generations are often too big to really deduce a lot of takeaways from because take an older millennial versus a younger millennial, the way, I mean, there's differences there. You take an older Gen Z versus a younger Gen Z, and you're talking about someone who's mid-twenties versus a teenager, early teens. And so there are big differences. Ms. Morales Freed of Sago was pointing out the Gen C share most characteristics, however, they're a super concentrated version of Gen Z, saying they're like proverbial formed under pandemic pressure.

(20:49):

They are more impatient, anxious, and resilient than the broader generation also going on to say that they've already experienced instant change, and so they have less patience for employers who seem to have touch with the world around them and employers who are slow to adapt or change because this generation, Gen C, saw the world change overnight, which I thought was quite interesting, kind of a very profound and influential experience for someone of such a young age. Anyway, that's all we've got time for for this episode. Thank you so much to you, Paola, for hanging out with me today.

Paola Flores-Marquez (21:21):

Yeah, thank you so much. This was so much fun.

Marcus Johnson (21:22):

Yes, indeed.

Paola Flores-Marquez (21:23):

I promise I won't be as depressing next time for the opening.

Marcus Johnson (21:29):

We'll see. It's a low bar. That's all we've got time for for this episode. Thank you to you, Paola. Thank you to Victoria who edits the show. Stuart runs the team and Sophia does our social media, and thanks to everyone for listening in to the Behind the Numbers Daily, an EMARKETER podcast. If you would like to hang out with Paola again, you can spend some time with her tomorrow on the Reimagining Retail show with host Sara Lebow and also Blake Droesch, where they'll be talking all about Gen Z's path to purchase.