Are young people addicted to social media? The answer might be yes, but that might not mean what you think it does in terms of what they’re actually doing on these networks.

According to a recent YPulse survey, young people are more inclined to read and comment on other people’s posts than publish their own content.

Indeed, the study points to users being largely passive on social media: 79% of young people see themselves as “viewers” on social networks, preferring to observe and consume content rather than create and share their own. Only 22% of young people posted a video on their feed, while 21% said they view themselves as creators.

This trend is also reflected in the frequency with which young people post content: the majority of young people post on social media once a month at most, and only 5% post content every day.

So what are young people doing on social media if they aren’t posting content? Reading and commenting on other people’s posts, apparently – 58% of young people said they read comments on a social media post in the week preceding the survey, while 46% left a comment on a post.

This trend is particularly pronounced among teenagers aged 13-17: 63% read the comments on a post in the previous week, while 53% left a comment.

Teens are also more likely to use the comments section of a post to engage with their friends, even tagging friends and having “conversations” with them. Young people often use this approach to share a meme they think their friends can relate to.

When it comes to posts, young adults aged 18-24 prefer to publish photos on their stories rather than on their feeds. The study shows that 36% of young adults have published a photo on their story, compared with just 20% who have published a photo on their feed.

This preference for stories is explained by the fact that young adults are looking to maintain their online presence while being selective about what others can see. Stories are a casual way to publish content without having to worry about perfection or long-term relevance, YPulse explained.

Indeed, young users now choose the posts they publish on their feeds very carefully: it’s not uncommon to see them deleting all their content on Instagram in order to create a new “aesthetic” for themselves.

It’s worth bearing in mind that YPulse’s survey involved a nationally representative sample from the United States and Canada. The question now is whether these trends generally apply to young users everywhere.