At the beginning of the year, everyone makes their predictions for what marketing trends will take the world by storm. From there, it’s a waiting game to see what will stick.

Luckily for us, we’ve done that long enough! The first report of the year on consumer media trends, conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital, has officially gone live.

Read on to learn how your customers are consuming digital media differently in 2019 than they did in 2018.

Adoption of Digital Media:

Smartphone ownership only grew one point in 2019, the smallest level of growth since the survey started in 2009. With 84 percent of people already owning a smartphone, this number will likely grow slowly from here on.

Meanwhile, smart speakers are experiencing the rapid growth smartphones saw back in 2009 and 2010. Twenty-three percent of the population now has at least one, a five-point increase from last year.

Overall, the number of people using social media hasn’t grown much in the previous three years. Seventy-nine percent of people use social in 2019 compared to 77 percent in 2016. Like smartphone adoption, the people who want one, have one.

Social Media:

Facebook use continues to drop. Sixty-one percent of people are using Facebook in 2019, down one point from 2018 and 6 points from 2017. That means that there are 15 million fewer Facebook users in 2019 than they were in 2017. Those between the ages of 12 and 34 are opting out while those over 55 are still joining Facebook. Despite this, Facebook remains the most used platform across all demographics.

Instagram continues to rise. Thirty-nine percent of people use Instagram, up three points from 2018 and 5 points from 2017. For those between the ages of 12 and 34, this was the most popular app, followed by Snapchat.

Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter stayed steady. The same percentage of people used Pinterest and Snapchat in 2018 and 2019 (31 percent). Ditto for LinkedIn — with 22 percent of people using the platform. Twitter fell two points from last year and clocked in at 19 percent.

WhatsApp, a popular messaging app, was included in the survey for the first time, signaling that the uptick in messaging is here to stay.

The Breakaway Media Star of 2019

While social media has, for the most part, plateaued, audio has become a fan favorite in 2019. Online audio has reached a new high in weekly time spent listening with the average listener tuning in for nearly 17 hours.

Get the skinny on the new trend below. With the growth in smart speakers and the dip in social, consumers are opting for audio.

For the first time, most Americans (51 percent) have listened to a podcast. That seven-point uptick from 2018 means that 20 million more people are engaging with podcasts in 2019. Those between the ages of 12 and 24 as well as those between the ages of 25 and 54 were the biggest demographics that consumed more podcasts in 2019.

Once exposed, people dive in head first. There are 14 million more weekly podcast listeners than there was last year. That’s the largest growth in podcast listening since the survey began asking in 2013. Also, the average podcast listener consumed a staggering seven podcasts in the last week.

Audiobook consumption has also surged with a six-point jump compared to 2018. Now half of Americans have listened to an audiobook.