Teacher Tapp report finds teachers are moving away from work social media as X drops to 10%

The 2026 report says no single platform now reaches a majority of teachers for work, with YouTube, podcasts and personal feeds playing a bigger role.

Teacher Tapp’s 2026 report finds teachers are moving away from work-focused social media, with no single platform now reaching a majority of teachers for work.

Teacher Tapp has published The Social Media Report 2026, finding that 39% of teachers now use no social media for work and that X has fallen from dominant work platform to a channel used by just one in ten teachers.

The report is based on seven years of Teacher Tapp data on teachers’ media and social media habits. Teacher Tapp says the old model behind its previous Guide to the 7 Types of Teachers on Social Media no longer fits the data, with teachers now falling into three broad groups: a small active core, a large passive audience, and a growing group that does not use social media for work.

The report says no social media platform now reaches a majority of teachers for work. X, formerly Twitter, has fallen from 70% teacher work usage in 2019 to 10% in 2026, while YouTube has become the most-used work platform at 36%.

Teacher Tapp says the shift does not mean teachers have left social media altogether. Three-quarters of teachers use Facebook for personal reasons, 69% use Instagram personally, and many still encounter education content while scrolling outside work.

The report is aimed at organizations trying to reach teachers, including education businesses, publishers, professional development providers and campaign teams. Teacher Tapp says reaching teachers now requires a broader mix of channels rather than reliance on one dominant work feed.

YouTube leads work use, but mainly for classroom video

Teacher Tapp says fully visual platforms, including YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, are the only social platforms where teacher work usage is increasing.

YouTube is now used by 36% of teachers for work in a given week. Among teachers who use YouTube for work, 86% say their main purpose is finding videos to show students, compared with 21% who use it to learn something themselves and 16% who use it to find resources or ideas.

Primary and secondary teachers use YouTube differently. Around 31% of primary teachers mostly use short videos of under two minutes, compared with 19% of secondary classroom teachers. Secondary classroom teachers are more likely to use longer videos, with 40% mostly using videos over two minutes.

The report also points to subject differences. Humanities teachers are the most likely to use YouTube for classroom video, while secondary maths teachers are less likely than most subject groups to use it for work.

Teachers are consuming, not broadcasting

Teacher Tapp says active teacher social media behavior has declined sharply. In 2026, just 4% of teachers are classed as active users who carry out at least two work-related activities such as commenting, sharing resources or blogging.

Passive social media behavior remains more common. The report says teachers are more likely to read posts or articles, watch videos and download resources than post updates or share their own writing.

Headteachers and senior leaders remain more active than classroom teachers. Teacher Tapp says school leaders are more likely to read education content and several times more likely to post a short update or share something they have written.

Karen Wespieser, Chief Executive Officer at Teacher Tapp, writes in the report: “The headlines are clear: X has fallen off a cliff. YouTube is the most-used platform for work, though mostly as a place to find videos for the classroom, rather than somewhere to connect. And there is no longer any single platform that a majority of teachers use for work.”

She adds: “The ‘everyone’ you could once buy your way in front of isn’t there any more.”

Education media and podcasts still reach leaders

The report also examines where teachers turn beyond social media. TES is the most-read education media title in the Teacher Tapp data, with 28% of teachers saying they had read it in print or online in the past month. Schools Week follows at 15%.

Both titles are more widely read by senior leaders and headteachers. Among senior leaders, 39% had read TES in the past month, while 31% had read Schools Week.

Podcasts appear more stable than social media in the Teacher Tapp data. Almost a third of teachers listen to an education podcast, with leading shows differing by phase and seniority.

Two Mr P’s in a Pod(Cast) appears in the top three for both primary and secondary teachers. Evidence into Action, from the Education Endowment Foundation, is more popular with senior leaders and headteachers, while Teach Sleep Repeat is more common among classroom teachers.

Teacher Tapp says its app surveys more than 10,000 teachers daily across more than 5,000 schools and has collected more than 110 million data points. The Social Media Report 2026 is now available as the organization’s updated guide to teacher media behavior, replacing the previous seven-type social media framework.