Social media has easily become the most essential aspect of electronics when it comes to high schoolers in day-to-day life. Regardless of what people say about it being harmful or a waste of time, teenagers are going to continue to use it and it will only become more relevant as time goes on, which is why it’s important to know which platforms are the best and will provide the best experience while using them. These are the top five social media platforms in order.

In 5th place, we have Facebook. Facebook is great. You can share your pictures easily and it does a very good job of letting you provide an overall life update to those who view your profile. This issue with Facebook is that as time goes on it has become less and less popular, especially for younger audiences. One reason could be that the platform has been around for longer than its competitors, but another thing it lacks is entertainment. There are not a lot of exciting features about Facebook and other than viewing people’s profiles, there’s just not much to do.

For 4th, we have Twitter. Once again Twitter is a great platform that does well at serving the purpose it was intended for. Twitter is still very popular, but similar to Facebook, it tends to fall off when it comes to the youth demographic. Unlike other platforms, it wasn’t created with the intent of entertaining and is more of a way for any person to share their thoughts or information with anyone, anytime. The problem is it’s started to become completely overrun by politics and people who simply want to disagree with people and cause problems. Overall it’s still a solid platform, but due to certain aspects, it isn’t a very viable option for teenagers.

In 3rd place is Snapchat. Snapchat is unique in the sense that it’s the only social media platform that has almost no adult demographic. A huge majority of its users are teenagers except for some young adults. Snapchat is very popular among younger audiences because it’s very easy and simple. Teenagers also like being able to stay connected with their friends and others while doing the least amount of work possible, and Snapchat does a great job of letting people do that. It’s very convenient for keeping people entertained when they want to do something simple to pass the time. Overall it’s a fantastic platform, the reason it doesn’t place higher however is that other platforms offer more for people to do.

The runner-up is Insta. Instagram is the perfect platform for all-around entertainment and purpose. You can share pictures for all your followers to see. It also allows people to tag others in posts and comment on them where you can even mention other people. “I like Instagram because I can scroll through pictures and videos that I actually enjoy,” says Bingham student Ben Le. There are an infinite amount of things to do on Instagram because you can follow an unlimited number of people and get access to a feed full of fun and interesting posts. They just added a reel system as well so people can watch videos catered to their interests. 

The best Media platform goes to TikTok. TikTok took the world by storm the last year and has completely dominated the social media scene since its release. People spend hours of the day just scrolling through videos. TikTok offers something for everyone because its complex algorithm makes sure people are getting content that specifically appeals to them. It’s also a great gateway for music artists and others to get their name out into the world. It’s a fantastic, entertaining platform and it’s great for the short attention span of today’s society.

Overall, social media is a staple in today’s society and many want to know what the best are. After asking teens what they like best, the list we came up with can inform many more to come.