Facebook remains the most popular social media site among online adults in the United States, but its user growth has largely plateaued since 2012, a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center shows.
About 72 percent of online adults surveyed this year by the organization said they use Facebook, a percentage that hasn t changed much since 2012.
Other social media sites such as Pinterest and Instagram — though younger than Facebook — have doubled their usage since 2012 but growth on all the sites has slowed down in the last year.
The report breaks down the growth rate in this chart:
Still, the percentage of online adults who use Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn daily has increased since September 2014.
The report, which was based on nationwide telephone interviews during the spring, also showed for the first time the percentage of smartphone users and online adults who use mobile messaging apps.
Messaging apps are more popular among younger adults with about 36 percent of smartphone owners using apps such as WhatsApp, Kik or iMessage, survey data showed. About 17 percent of smartphone owners said they used apps such as Snapchat that automatically deletes messages after they re viewed.
Wednesday s report stemmed from telephone interviews conducted between March 17 through April 2015 with 1,907 adults nationwide, according to the Pew Research Center.
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