Anyone who uses the subway in Vienna may find it hard to believe, given that people are almost exclusively preoccupied with their mobile phones: but social media use among Austria’s young people is apparently on the decline. At least this is evident from the Youth Internet Monitor 2024 of the EU initiative Saferinternet.at, which was published on Tuesday. 400 children and young people between the ages of eleven and seventeen were interviewed in Austria.
WhatsApp and YouTube in particular have lost huge numbers of users. Only the instant photo app BeReal posted significant gains. Nevertheless, State Secretary for Youth Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP), whose State Secretariat in the Federal Chancellery supported the research by the Institute for Youth Culture Research, said: “The research shows once again that social media is an important part of young people’s lives. . That is precisely why it is important for us to show that social media does not always reflect reality.”
WhatsApp before Instagram and YouTube
The most popular internet platform this year is once again WhatsApp: three in four young people say they use it, and 77 percent of them use WhatsApp every day. Instagram and YouTube followed closely with 71 percent use, of which 68 percent was daily. However, there were huge declines, especially for WhatsApp at minus 20 percentage points and YouTube at minus 24 percentage points.
The study results in detail:
Due to the large number of platforms, some of which have very similar functions, established social networks are becoming less important among eleven to seventeen year olds, according to Saferinternet.at. Communication between young people has long taken place via channels other than WhatsApp. YouTube is becoming less and less relevant, especially among young people, as all major networks now rely on video integration. The experts suspected that the increasing use of established platforms by parents or grandparents could also play a role. To differentiate themselves, young people would increasingly distance themselves from major services and turn to newer platforms where they still feel undisturbed.
TikTok ranks fourth in Austria
TikTok ended up in fourth place in the Youth Internet Monitor this year: with a total use of 65 percent, of which 72 percent daily, the video app overtook Snapchat for the first time (61 percent overall, of which 72 percent daily). Photo-sharing app Snapchat posted the third-largest loss year-over-year, down minus eight percentage points.
The digital pinboard Pinterest is still in the top six with a usage rate of 42 percent. BeReal continued to grow this year and is now in eighth place with the largest increase of 13 percentage points (total usage: 31 percent). X (formerly Twitter) also gained six percentage points (total use: 24 percent). Telegram came in 14th place with an 18 percent usage share.
Usage behavior varies between boys and girls
There were major differences in the use of social media between the genders. WhatsApp is significantly more popular among girls (89 percent of users) than among boys (65 percent). The same goes for Pinterest (girls: 53 percent, boys: 31 percent), Snapchat (girls: 72 percent, boys: 52 percent), Instagram (girls: 79 percent, boys: 63 percent) and YouTube (girls: 76 percent, boys: 65 percent).
In contrast, the gaming platforms Discord (girls: 13 percent, boys: 48 percent) and Twitch (girls: seven percent, boys 39 percent) are still used by significantly more male youth. X (girls: eleven percent, boys 35 percent) and the courier services Telegram (girls: ten percent, boys 25 percent) and Signal (girls: eleven percent, boys 26 percent) are also more popular among male youth.
The use of the chatbot ChatGPT was also questioned. It found that 71 percent of respondents had used this tool at least once, especially young men (78 percent). It is striking that there is no difference between the age group of eleven to fourteen years (70 percent) and the age group of 15 to 17 years (71 percent). ChatGPT is mainly used directly on the OpenAI platform (81 percent), followed by the Snapchat chatbot My AI (28 percent). Only eight percent use ChatGPT via Microsoft’s search engine Bing. There are mainly gender-specific differences in the chatbot My AI, which is mainly used by female young people (41 percent, boys: 19 percent).
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
