TikTok is the fastest-growing social platform amid slow overall social network user gains in the UK. Facebook remains the dominant force, but as its user base ages, its grip will begin to slip.

Teens continue to leave Facebook, and the platform won’t be able to reverse that trend in 2022 or beyond. But in a surprising twist, the average age of a Facebook user is also starting to decrease.

TikTok is now the third largest social network in the US, ahead of Snapchat and Pinterest. Facebook won’t be able to stop the teen exodus, Instagram’s user base is growing older, and Twitter will start losing users.

TikTok takes up more of its users’ time than any other social media platform in the US. This year, adult TikTok users will spend an average of 38 minutes per day on the short-video app. Twitter ranks second, with a daily average of 35 minutes, while third-place Facebook will see 31 minutes per day from the average adult user.

On today's episode, we discuss how Americans' attention shifted in 2021 (and what that means for the year ahead), the promise of ultra-fast delivery, the ideal amount of ads you should show viewers, whether gaming is more popular than TV for Gen Z, Facebook testing giving more control of the newsfeed to users, the office of the future, how far away the average American adult lives from their mother, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst Blake Droesch and principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter’s problems attracting young users persist. Only 31% of respondents said they use Facebook at least once per month. We expect Facebook to lose 1.7 million teen users between 2020 and 2025, leaving it with 8 million. Twitter will lose 200,000 teens in the same period, leaving it with 5.2 million.

Analyst insight: DAU growth is a positive sign for Facebook “especially coming off of Q4 2021 when it experienced its first-ever decline in DAUs,” said analyst Evelyn Mitchell. “But it’s also clear that Facebook is still struggling to bring in new users, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Instagram to pick up the slack.”

While Instagram giveth, Facebook taketh away. The Meta-owned platforms face diverging futures. Instagram's US user base will increase by 4.0% this year to 128.3 million, while Facebook's will decline by 0.8% to 178.3 million.

This year, TikTok will surpass YouTube in terms of time spent by their respective adult users in the US. The short-video app will see 45.8 minutes per day from its average adult user, edging out YouTube, at 45.6 minutes.

Nearly 400 million people in Latin America will use social networks in 2022. Facebook remains the region's biggest platform, but it will experience its slowest user growth on record this year as TikTok and Instagram make gains.