You Were Nudged

Social media news use holds near 53%

The feed remains a normal place to learn what happened, which means many people meet reality through different algorithms.

→ Plateauing84% confidencehorizon Dec 2026data as of Aug 2025

Confidence-weighted forecast · history → projection

Tracking share of U.S. adults who often or sometimes get news from social media (percent of adults)

ObservedProjectionshaded band = confidence cone

84%

Confidence

2026

Horizon

Jun 2026

First called

Tracking

Status

The call

For about half the country, news does not arrive as a front page. It arrives between jokes, friends, clips, outrage and ads.

The number to notice

Social media news use has stayed around half of U.S. adults for six straight yearly readings.

What’s driving this

news mixed into entertainment feeds
people discovering stories without searching
platforms rewarding emotional content
younger adults using social platforms as default information spaces

Sources · check usOpen

Social Media and News Fact Sheet ↗Pew Research Center · 2025-09-25survey

For you

Your feed is not just showing you news. It is quietly deciding which version of the day feels normal.

What would change our mind

This call weakens if Pew’s next reading falls below 45% or if news websites, TV, or direct subscriptions regain clear first-place status among younger adults.

Behind the numbersOpen

Pew asks U.S. adults how often they get news from social media. The metric here adds “often” and “sometimes.” The observed points are from Pew’s 2025 Social Media and News Fact Sheet: 2020 23% often plus 30% sometimes; 2021 19% plus 29%; 2022 17% plus 33%; 2023 19% plus 31%; 2024 25% plus 29%; 2025 21% plus 32%. This measures frequency, not accuracy or trust.