About half of American adults use YouTube and Facebook every single day

TikTok, Reddit, and Threads are all growing, but YouTube remains the most widely used platform.

11/24/25 11:00AM

Being an adult (or even a child) in 2025 often means navigating the pitfalls of spending too much time on social media.

Many might not want to know how much endless scrolling is affecting us — and, for what it’s worth, Meta appears to feel the same, with Reuters reporting earlier today that the company shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook following some concerning findings.

Still, a growing awareness of the risks doesn’t seem to be deterring too many Americans just yet. Last week, Pew Research Center published an update to its survey on social media use, finding that roughly half of Americans in 2025 use Facebook and YouTube every single day (52% and 48%, respectively).

High profiles

Those were also the only two sites that were used by a majority across all age groups, the survey found. However, young people were far more likely to use the video-sharing platform: only 68% of 18- to 29-year-olds reported using Facebook, compared with 95% who use YouTube, which retained its crown as the most used social media overall.

Social Media Use Pew Survey 2025 — Sherwood News

While Facebook has been trying to solve its youth problem by bringing back old features like “pokes,” it’s made more headway with age-inclusive services like Facebook Dating and Marketplace. Mark Zuckerberg’s tech empire is also seeing some success at taking on rival X (Twitter) with text-based Threads — a new entrant in Pew’s survey this year, citing 8% of people now using the Instagram-linked site.

At the same time, TikTok, one of Meta’s biggest competitors, has expanded its American user base even as a question mark hangs over its future: the share of US adults reporting using the short-form video app has grown from 21% to 37% over the last four years. Meanwhile, the share who’ve said they use the ever more influential social forum Reddit has more than doubled to 26% since 2019.

Millie Giles6h

Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

Millie Giles

PANDORA’S BOX OFFICE

1/5/26

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” surpasses $1 billion globally after 18 days

James Cameron is now the first director in history to have four consecutive movies gross over a billion dollars.

$5.6B

Max Knoblauch12/23/25

Disney could be well on its way to its third billion-dollar film of the year following a $345 million opening weekend for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The film’s opening gross puts the “Avatar” franchise’s total box office earnings at $5.6 billion — and counting.

The latest film, the second “Avatar” entry under Disney’s tent, earned about 75% of its total box office gross internationally — in line with previous movies in the (as of now) trilogy. Domestically, this one earned $88 million, falling short of expectations.

“Fire and Ash” was the widest Imax release ever, debuting on 1,703 screens globally and earning $43.6 million through the format. The $345 million “Fire and Ash” opening weekend was the second-highest of 2025, behind Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which recently passed the $1 billion mark, globally.

Year to date, Disney has earned $5.8 billion globally at the box office.