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One-quarter of U.S. adults under 30 get their news from TikTok

The number of young American adults getting their news from TikTok is rising fast.

Ozzie Mejia

October 24, 2022 1:05 PM

ByteDance

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For all the talk about adults getting their news from Facebook and Twitter, it appears that the younger generation is getting their news from a different source: TikTok. In fact, roughly one-quarter of all American adults under the age of 30 are now getting their news from TikTok, a number that has nearly tripled since 2020.

These findings come from the Pew Research Center, which has also estimated that ten percent of all adults in the United States are getting their news from TikTok. Of the various social networks, TikTok is one of the only ones in which this figure seems to be trending upwards. Fewer users from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks are stating that they get their news from those sites.

There are some noteworthy takeaways from this study. First, that stated figure of 26 percent of U.S. adults under 30 is not an inconsequential number given that TikTok has long since passed 1 billion montly active users. However, it's worth noting that TikTok has been and remains a target for removal, whether it's by Joe Biden's FCC or former President Donald Trump. It's likely there will continue to be conflicts between TikTok parent company ByteDance and various corners of the American government, which poses the hypothetical question: If TikTok ever goes away, where do these adults then turn to get their news?

It's a fascinating study and these are results worth watching, especially heading into the elections of 2022 and 2024. We'll continue to watch TikTok (partly because watching viral videos is a fun time-waster) and report back with any other interesting stories from that corner of the internet.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?