Where do you get your news? A new survey shows a massive change in how Americans inform themselves

A new survey from Pew Research Center indicates that Americans have passed a tipping point when it comes to changing the sources they go to for news.

According to Pew, more Americans go to social media for news than the number that go to newspapers.

In 2016, 20 percent of Americans surveyed said they got their news from newspapers, while 18 percent got their news from social media.

Two years later, social media has surpassed newspapers as a source of news, with 20 percent of Americans turning to social media while the percentage that read newspapers has dipped to 16 percent.

However, neither come anywhere near close to the behemoth that is television when it comes to the propagation of news.

In 2016, fully 57 percent of Americans went to television for news. While the percentage has dropped to 49 percent just two years later, television still dominates all other media sources for news.

Not all television news is equal however - most Americans turn to local news on television than for cable TV news, with national evening news shows taking up the rear.

The age gap

There's also an enormous age gap - the Pew survey found that Americans 65 years old and older were five times as likely to get their news from television as younger Americans.

About 81 percent of those aged 65 and older get their news from television often, whereas only 16 percent of those aged 18 to 29 said they got their news from television.

And the divide goes the other direction with social media as a news source - younger Americans are about four times as likely to get their news from social media as those aged 65 and older.

"Younger Americans are also unique in that they don't rely on one platform in the way that the majority of their elders rely on TV," said Pew researcher Elisa Shearer.

"No more than half of those ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 get news often from any one news platform," she explained.