Forrester Research has released data from their 2021 Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics® US Youth Survey and the results are interesting as they vary greatly from their 2020 results.

For this survey, the company Forrester collected 4,602 online surveys of U.S. youth aged 12 to 17 years old. In 2020, Forrester’s research showed in their poll group Gen Z Youth (12 – 17), 50% used Tiktok weekly, 54% used Snapchat weekly and 61% used Instagram weekly. A year later, these percentages have shifted. While Snapchat usage stayed the same at 54%, Tiktok rose 13 points to 63% while Instagram took a 4 point ding to 57%.

Through further market research, Forrester strived to find why TikTok had such a sudden increase. They asked parents in their ConsumerVoices Online Research Community to ask their 12 – 17-year-old children why they enjoy using Tiktok. Many of the responses suggested:

Entertainment Value: Many kids used the words “fun” or “funny” when describing the content on the platform, saying videos there were funnier.

Short Watch Time: Many youth users enjoy the easy, scroll ability and bite-sized clips that their Tiktok FYPs have to offer.

A Place to Express Themselves: Many respondents enjoyed the ability to positively express themselves through the platform, like through dances.

Forrester also notes that while TikTok is a popular social media platform with Gen Z Youth, it is not the most popular. In the same survey, 72% of U.S. Youth respondents said they use Youtube at least weekly. – which is a 3 percent increase from the 2020 survey.

As future media professionals, this information like this is extremely important to our field of work. Knowing what media certain age groups are using daily can help us cater our content for them.

Proulx, Mike. “Weekly Usage Of TikTok Surpasses Instagram Among US Gen Z Youth” 18, November 2021. Forrester Research. https://www.forrester.com/blogs/weekly-usage-of-tiktok-surpasses-instagram-among-us-gen-z-youth/