The statistic presents data on the average amount of screen time parents allow their child a day in the United States as of January 2018, by household income. During the survey, 53 percent of respondents who earned 100 thousand U.S. dollars or more stated that they allowed their child two to four hours of screen time per day.

Female teens aged 13 to 18 years had an average daily entertainment screen time of eight hours and two minutes in the United States in 2021. In comparison, male tweens had an average screen time of six hours and 11 minutes.

According to a survey of media users in the United States fielded in December 2024, TV took up 39 percent of time spent with entertainment screens by respondents over the age of 35 years. The surveyed Gen Z consumers spent 16 percent of their entertainment screen time with TV, while they devoted 23 percent of that time to gaming.

Children aged 8 to 12 years spent an average of two hours and 40 minutes watching TV or videos daily in the United States in 2021. However, they spent an average of nine minutes reading books or articles online.

As of June 2020, 62 percent of parents to U.S. teens aged 14 to 17 years stated that their kids were spending more than four hours per day on electronic devices since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 32 percent of responding parents stated that their teens had used electronic devices daily for more than four hours before the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the pandemic triggered a rise in the use of electronic devices among American children under 13 and teenagers with screentime now double that of what it used to be across all age groups.

YouTube, Netflix and Instagram dominate

In an ongoing survey between 2015 and 2020 it was reported that the most popular video platforms among teens in the U.S. were Netflix and YouTube, and the pandemic has done little to shift that. Cable TV viewership continued to decline throughout 2020, while Hulu rose in popularity during this time. Meanwhile, despite a slight drop in viewership Netflix and YouTube retained their positions as the top two video services after the onset of the pandemic. YouTube and Instagram were also named the most popular social media channels among teens and young adults, as of the third quarter of 2020. Due to their booming popularity, it is no wonder that advertisers have been increasingly targeting these networks, with social media add spend having been on the rise each year since 2017. The biggest growth surge has come from mobile advertising, while spend on desktop advertising has remained nearly the same.

Texting and phone calls most preferred during lockdown

As most of the world entered lockdown during the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic in April 2020, teens in the U.S. were asked which technologies they had used to virtually connect with friends and family during this time. 'Texting' was the most preferred method, named by over 80 percent followed by phone calls. Meanwhile, video chat and social media came in third.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, Gen Z respondents were spending the most time using their phones, over six hours a day. By contrast, Baby Boomers recorded a daily screen time of roughly three hours and 30 minutes.  Many users feel addicted to smartphones As technology’s role in our everyday life increases, consumers tend to spend more and more time using electronic devices, whether it is for working and studying on laptops and tablets, watching TV or scrolling social media on smartphones. As a consequence, many users across all generations feel somewhat addicted to smartphones. According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, Gen Z users felt addicted to such devices the most, followed by Millennials. Taking a step back and nostalgia for early 2000s How can we combat the overwhelming urge to stay connected and take a step back from our always-on reality? In an effort to reduce screen time, many users, especially those in Gen Z, are expressing a sense of nostalgia for early 2000s technology, particularly dumb phones and wired headphones. For instance, during a 2024 survey in the United States, 28 percent of Gen Z respondents stated they would be interested in purchasing dumb phones, followed by 26 percent of Millennials - a trend that might involve more users in the future.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, teenagers spent an average of 4.8 hours every day on social media platforms. Girls spent 5.3 hours on social networks daily, compared to 4.4 hours for boys. YouTube and TikTok were the most popular online networks among those aged 13 to 19, with 1.9 and 1.5 hours of average daily engagement, respectively. The most used platform for girls was TikTok, while the most used platform for boys was YouTube. Are teens constantly connected to social media? YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most attractive and time-consuming platforms for young internet users. A survey conducted in the U.S. in 2023 found that 62 percent of teenagers were almost constantly connected to Instagram, and 17 percent were almost constantly connected to TikTok. Overall, 71 percent of teens used YouTube daily, and 47 percent used Snapchat daily. Furthermore, YouTube had a 93 percent reach among American teens in 2023, down from 95 percent in 2022. Teens and their internet devices For younger generations especially, social media is mostly accessed via mobile devices, and almost all teenagers in the United States have smartphone access. A 2023 survey conducted in the U.S. found that 92 percent of teens aged 13 to 14 years had access to a smartphone at home, as well as 97 percent of those aged 15 to 17. Additionally, U.S. girls were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to have access to a smartphone.

The total daily entertainment screen time of teens, 13 to 18 year olds, amounted to eight hours and 39 minutes in the United States in 2021. Nevertheless, this figure for teens show an increase from the figure recorded in 2015, when it amounted to six hours and 40 minutes.

According to a survey of parents in the United States conducted in September 2022, besides time granted for homework and educational purposes, 38 percent of respondents reported allowing their children to use digital devices between one or two hours per day. In comparison, 30 percent of respondents reporting to allow their children between three and four hours of screen time per day, while eight percent of respondents reported allowing their children over six hours of daily screen time.

This statistic presents data on the average daily time 0 to 8 year olds spent with screen media in the United States in 2017, sorted by gender. It was found that young boys spent an average of two hours and 26 minutes daily using screen media.

Teens aged 13 to 18 years spent an average of three hours and 16 minutes watching TV or videos daily in the United States in 2021. Moreover, teens spent an average of 20 minutes video-chatting.

Estimates suggest that in 2024 U.S. adults will spend an average of nearly three hours watching traditional TV each day. This figure has generally fallen in recent years and the downward trend is forecast to continue in the years to come. The only exception to this trend is the year 2020, when consumption increased due to a growth in media consumption during the coronavirus outbreak. Screen time Although average daily time spent watching TV appears to be decreasing, this does not necessarily mean that people are spending less time in front of screens; this drop is likely due to an increasing amount of time spent with phones, tablets, and laptops. With on-demand streaming services such as Netflix gaining massive popularity, people can watch a huge range of programming whilst on the go, meaning that screen time is no longer limited to time spent at home in front of the TV. Young people around the world have been especially quick to adopt smartphone-based video streaming habits meaning that television screen time will likely fall even further in the future. Television in the U.S. As mentioned above, the way people are consuming their video entertainment content is rapidly changing in the United States. By 2027, estimates suggest that only 47.8 million U.S. households will pay for traditional TV services, down from over 100 million as of 2014. In order to compete for people’s business, cable and satellite providers must find a way to adapt in a way the meets the needs of today’s increasingly mobile consumers. Some are launching their own streaming services in a bid to tackle cord-cutting, most notably Comcast.

In 2023, children in the United States spent an average of 120 minutes per day on TikTok. Instagram ranked second, with young users engaging with the popular video messaging app for approximately 65 minutes per day. By comparison, children in the United States spent 20 minutes on average on Pinterest, while the Reddit mobile app only saw approximately 10 minutes of daily usage by children and teens in the country.

The average time spent daily on a phone, not counting talking on the phone, has increased in recent years, reaching a total of 4 hours and 30 minutes as of April 2022. This figure is expected to reach around 4 hours and 39 minutes by 2024.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just two hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

In 2020, the adult smartphone users in China spent an average of about two hours and 51 minutes per day on their smartphones. Compared to the previous year, daily usage time increased by over 23 percent. According to the forecast, smartphone users were projected to extend their screen time to almost four hours a day by 2023.

According to a survey conducted in February 2021, nearly half of the respondents stated that on average they spent five to six hours on their phone on a daily basis, not including work-related smartphone use. A further 22 percent of respondents said that they spent three to four hours on average on their phone daily. Just five percent of the surveyed users said they spent less than an hour a day on their smartphone. As of the end of 2020, 18 percent of respondents reported not limiting their use of mobile apps or services at all.

Mobile social in the United States Between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, users in the United States spent more than 37 minutes daily on social media apps. Traditional social media products as Facebook and Instagram still manage to engage larger online audiences, however mobile-first social video platform TikTok won the favor of the younger segments of the country’s digital population. As video becomes the industry-favorite format for social media, the user base of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok is expected to keep growing, especially among Gen Z users in the country.

Ads in apps: U.S. users’ opinion of in-app advertising Despite the growing popularity of mobile services on subscription, adding ads to the mobile app experience remains the most common monetization method among U.S. publishers. As of September 2021, more than three users in 10 agreed that having mobile apps with ads was preferable to paying for downloads, while only eight percent disagreed. Approximately 32 percent of users were inclined to visit the brand’s website after seeing relevant in-app advertising, and 11 percent reported purchasing the advertised product.

According to the source, American children under two years spent an average time of 49 minutes per day consuming media on screen. However, the actual screen time varied considerably among this group: whereas 56 percent of children did not consume any media on screen, almost one third (31 percent) spent more than one hour with screen media.

In 2020, American children spent almost three quarters of their screen time for televison and video viewing. In contrast, they only used one percent of that time for homework. According to the source, the average screen use by day has increased by eight minutes compared to 2011.

This statistic presents data on the average daily time 0 to 8 year olds spent with screen media in the United States in 2017, sorted by ethnicity. It was found that young African-American children spent an average of two hours and 51 minutes daily using screen media.