NTIA · United States · November 2023
Messaging, email and social-network use
How common are these activities—and does messaging count as social-network use?
Internet users aged 15+ · Prior six months · Analysis checked 2026-10-08
of U.S. internet users aged 15+ were reported as texting or using instant messaging at least occasionally during the prior six months in NTIA’s November 2023 survey. Email was 92.4%; social-network use was 76.4%.
NTIA asks about these activities separately. Texting or instant messaging is broader than a particular messaging app, and its audience is not an extra group that can be added to the social-network audience.
People · U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population · Internet users aged 15+, not all adults or all residents · November 2023
Source: NTIA Analyze Table, Nov 2023 / adultInternetUser, textIMUser, emailUser and socialNetworkUser, usProp. Original source estimates; percentages converted from proportions by Social Usage.
One survey population, three activity questions
The reported point estimates place texting or instant messaging above email and social-network use. This describes the selected estimates; it is not a test of statistical significance or an explanation of why people choose an activity.
November 2023 · At least occasionally during the prior six months
Source: NTIA aggregate CSV, retained rows 770, 767 and 769, usProp/usPropSE. Original Social Usage graphic. These activities overlap; bars are not parts of a total. Sampling standard errors appear below.
View the three estimates and source standard errors
| Activity | Share (%) | Source SE (pp) | CSV row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texting or instant messaging | 95.0649 | 0.1303 | 770 |
| 92.4219 | 0.1632 | 767 | |
| Social networks | 76.3696 | 0.2645 | 769 |
The source CSV supplies proportions and proportion standard errors to six decimal places. Multiplying each by 100 gives the four-decimal percentages and percentage-point SEs here. An SE is not a confidence interval or a margin of error. Item sample sizes and confidence intervals are unspecified in these selected records.
“Messaging” is not a single app or a private-chat count
The questionnaire first tells respondents to focus on online activities done at least occasionally during the past six months. It then asks three separate Yes/No questions:
- Texting or instant messaging
- “What about texting or instant messaging?”
- “[Do you/Does NAME] use email?”
- Social networks
- “What about using social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram?”
Source: November 2023 questionnaire, PDF page 148 / Attachment 8, page 6, USEINT, TEXTIM, EMAIL and SOCIAL. Household proxy answers are permitted.
The texting item combines texting or instant messaging. It does not split SMS from app-based messaging, identify WhatsApp or Messenger users, or distinguish one-to-one conversations from group chats. It also does not establish that every reported exchange was private.
The social-network question names Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as examples. Those names do not produce three platform estimates. Nor does the wording establish a universal rule for classifying every messaging feature inside a social network.
Use this evidence for the broad activities it asks about. An app adoption question needs app-specific evidence; a group-chat or private-communication question needs an explicit definition and its own measure. These cells cannot answer those narrower questions.
Why the percentages cannot be added—or treated as exclusive groups
A person can answer Yes to more than one question. Adding the three shares would count some people more than once. The published marginal cells do not identify the audience using any of the three, using all three, or using messaging without social networks.
Subtracting the social-network share from the messaging share would not identify “messaging-only users”: that would require knowing which individual respondents reported both. We make no overlap or exclusive-audience calculation.
Matching denominators and recall windows make the three activity definitions easier to compare. They do not make the activities mutually exclusive. Likewise, “at least occasionally” is not daily use, time spent, registered membership or monthly active accounts.
Basis: separate Yes/No activity questions and the NTIA aggregate-table dictionary. The interpretation above is Social Usage’s explanation of marginal percentages, not an NTIA estimate of audience overlap.
Scope, uncertainty and reproducibility
Population, fieldwork and weighting
Fieldwork ran 12–18 November 2023. The activity sequence randomly selects one internet user aged 15+ in a household. It is skipped when all internet users in the household are under 15. Another household member may answer for the selected person.
NTIA’s Census Current Population Survey supplement covers the civilian noninstitutionalized population. These selected national estimates refer to internet users aged 15+ in the 50 states and District of Columbia. They are not a survey of all adults aged 18+.
NTIA’s tabulation assigns all three variables to adultInternetUser and uses the random-respondent weight. We select published weighted aggregates and their source standard errors; we process no individual responses. Nonresponse, reporting, imputation and coverage error can remain beyond sampling uncertainty.
Sources: technical documentation, PDF pages 7 and 148; official November 2023 tabulation code, lines 16, 26, 32, 36 and 89–91. We calculate no significance test, gap uncertainty or causal effect.
Exact source cells and calculation
Select dataset Nov 2023 and universe adultInternetUser in the original NTIA CSV. Read usProp and usPropSE for each of these rows, including the header in row numbering:
textIMUser, row 770: 0.950649 × 100 = 95.0649%; SE 0.001303 × 100 = 0.1303 percentage points.emailUser, row 767: 0.924219 × 100 = 92.4219%; SE 0.001632 × 100 = 0.1632 percentage points.socialNetworkUser, row 769: 0.763696 × 100 = 76.3696%; SE 0.002645 × 100 = 0.2645 percentage points.
Rows can move in later files; the variable, dataset and universe identify each record. Retained CSV SHA-256: c9b744849847775cf9419c8565553830b9fa374f62bbd674d4f22888521fd10a.
The site’s 75-observation social-network dataset contains social-network participation, not these additional email and texting cells. Its existing exports remain scoped to that dataset.
Dates, review and reuse
- Data period
- November 2023
- Source publication
- 2024-06-06 · NTIA’s 2023 Data Explorer update
- Retained statistical retrieval
- 2026-10-01 (UTC)
- Assisted analysis review
- 2026-10-08
The original evidence and dates are retained; this is not a current-year usage estimate or a new source refresh. Review was assisted evidence and calculation checking, not independent human editorial approval.
Selected federal aggregate facts support this attributed editorial presentation and original chart on an ad-supported publication. This guide offers no new data download, image export or embed and reproduces no agency logos, source artwork or respondent records.
U.S. federal statistical work; 17 U.S.C. § 105. Original rights verification: 2026-10-01. Source: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Internet Use Survey, November 2023; U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey. Selection and presentation by SocialUsage; no agency endorsement implied.