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.

According to a survey conducted in June 2023, adults in the United States spent more time per day on TikTok than on any other leading social media platform. Overall, respondents reported spending an average of 53.8 minutes per day on the social video app. YouTube and Twitter ranked second and third, each with an average of 48 minutes and 34 minutes spent on the platforms per day, respectively.

U.S. teens have time for certain platforms

Different social media platforms attract different demographics, with teenagers in the United States being more drawn to TikTok and YouTube over Facebook. In 2023, teenagers in the United States spent an average of almost two hours on YouTube and 1.5 hours on TikTok every day, 1451257 while Facebook was used by teens for less than half an hour per day. Furthermore, social media habits differ between genders, as teen girls were more likely to spend more time than boys on Instagram.

TikTok is king for teens and Gen Z

Although spending 1.5 hours on the Generation Z app of choice may sound rather modest, some TikTok users devote much more of their time to the platform . According to a survey conducted in the United States in 2022, around eight percent of teenagers in the United States spent over five hours a day on TikTok. 1417187 whereas another 22 percent reported spending between two and three hours daily on the video-based app.

In February 2024, adults in the United States aged between 18 and 24, spent 186 minutes per day engaging with social media platforms. In comparison, respondents aged 65 and older dedicated approximately 102 minutes of their day to social media. TikTok was the most engaging social media platform for U.S. consumers aged between 18 and 24 years. The popular video was also the most engaging among users aged 35 and 54 years, commanding between 45 and 50 minutes of users' daily attention. Respondents aged between 55 and 65, reported to spending between 45 minutes daily on Facebook.

Hong Kong internet users spent an average of one hour 42 minutes each day on social media, according to a 2023 digital usage survey. YouTube gained the highest attention with monthly usage time averaging 22 hours and 31 minutes per user, which means that users spent about 45 minutes a day on the platform. Facebook came in second with 13 hours and 47 minutes in the monthly screen time, down by three hours. Instagram, on the other hand, up by one hour to 12 hours and 53 minutes.

In 2020, the average daily time spent on social media by U.S. users amounted to 65 minutes. This duration is set to stay stable in the upcoming years. The daily minutes in 2020 are strongly related to social distancing due to COVID-19 and thus spending more time with social platforms in order to stay connected.

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.

As of March 2020, social media users in the United States were staying online more. According to a survey of U.S. social media users, 29.7 percent of respondents were using social media 1-2 hours additional hours per day. A further 20.5 percent used social media 30 minutes to 1 hour more than usual per day. Only 1.6 percent of users were adding less than 15 minutes to their usage. Additional social media usage was a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused stay home orders and social distancing to be put in place in the country.

Social media usage in the Asia-Pacific region varies significantly across countries, with the Philippines leading in daily time spent at three hours and 32 minutes in the third quarter of 2024. This was a stark contrast to Japan's 46 minutes per day. Penetration rates and user bases Among Asia Pacific countries, South Korea boasts the highest social media penetration at 93.4 percent, followed closely by Hong Kong at 86.2 percent. However, populous countries like Indonesia, China, and India show lower penetration rates, indicating significant growth potential. Despite this, China leads in absolute numbers with more than one billion active social media users, while India and Indonesia rank second and third in this category. These figures suggest that despite lower penetration rates in some countries, the sheer population size translates to massive user numbers. Platform preferences Facebook remains the dominant social media platform across Asia; however, competitors have gained ground in some markets. For example, Chinese network WeChat is the most popular platform in China, offering integrated services beyond social media. In Thailand and Laos, X (formerly Twitter) accounts for more than 70 percent of social media traffic.

The average daily time spent with digital media in the United States is expected to increase from 439 minutes (seven hours and 19 minutes) in 2022 to close to eight hours in 2025. Higher online media consumption in 2020 was partially attributed to the coronavirus outbreak.

Impact of COVID-19 on media consumption

In-home media consumption grew sharply in March 2020 in the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 40 percent of U.S. respondents reported spending more time watching shows and films on streaming services, and 25 percent were reading books or listening to audiobooks more than usual. Despite predictions that this spike in media usage would fall after the initial implementation of shelter-in-place orders, consumers also continued spending more time with media in the summer of 2020.

The same survey, held in July that year, also asked participants about their plans to continue with their increased media consumption after the pandemic has run its course. This garnered different responses, with only a handful of U.S. adults planning to carry on investing more time in most media activities. Again though, watching movies and shows on streaming platforms and reading or listening to books were the most popular options.

In 2021, adults in the U.S. spent an average of 485 minutes (eight hours and five minutes) with digital media each day. This figure marked an increase of 11 minutes compared to the previous year.

Traditional vs. digital media usage amid COVID-19

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic boosted media consumption across the globe. It also rapidly accelerated the shift from traditional to digital media consumption that has been unfolding in the United States and other markets for the better part of a decade. In 2020, consumers in the U.S. spent less than 350 minutes per day using analog media and entertainment formats such as television, radio, or print media. In contrast, they devoted an estimated 470 minutes to digital media and entertainment channels. Even though some traditional formats saw a temporary uptick in demand in 2020, the latest forecasts distinctly show that the media usage gap will continue to widen.

How do users spend their time online?

There has been a great influx of digital media and entertainment formats in recent years. According to a survey carried out in the early days of the pandemic, online video streaming ranked among the most popular digital media activities in the United States. This finding still holds true in 2022, as platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+ continue to add highly anticipated titles to their extensive content catalogs. Other popular digital media categories include online audio, social media, and gaming. Not only did online gaming traffic skyrocket in 2020, but young internet users in particular also spend more time watching gaming video content on services like Twitch nowadays.

In June 2024, Reddit, Facebook Messenger, and X saw a slight increase in engagement with their audience in the United States. Messenger users have engaged with the chat app for approximately 203 minutes in June 2024, compared to June 2023 when U.S. users spent approximately 172 minutes using the app. In comparison, Facebook users in the U.S. spent around 600 minutes on the social media app, compared to 680 minutes registered the year before.

In 2024, TikTok was the most popular social media app in Australia, based on average time spent, with users dedicating 42 hours and 13 minutes per month to the platform. This figure was nearly double the time spent on YouTube, which was 21 hours and 36 minutes, and Facebook, at 20 hours and 15 minutes.

Between October 2020 and March 2021, users aged between 40 and 44 years were the demographic spending the largest amount of time engaging with social media apps, with an average of 59.85 minutes per day. Global users aged 19 or younger spent the least amount of time on social media apps, while users aged 50 years or older spent approximately 56.43 minutes per day on social media apps.

During the first quarter of 2023, internet users in Brazil spent an average of three hours and 49 minutes per day on social media. Nigeria and the Philippines also reported high usage levels. By comparison, internet users in Japan spent less than 50 minutes per day on social media. Low levels of daily usage were also recorded in South Korea and the Belgium.

As of January 2023 social network Facebook was ranked first worldwide in terms of active users with almost three billion MAU. Other popular social media include mobile messaging platforms YouTube and WhatsApp, as well as social content sharing networks such as Instagram and social video platform TikTok.

Most social networks are accessible through multiple platforms, but many popular social media started out as mobile apps, demonstrating the growing trend of mobile first development. Examples include Instagram, which initially was launched as an iOS photo editing and discovery app as well as mobile social messenger, as well as TikTok, which recorded 23.7 million downloads worldwide via the Google Play Store alone in June 2023.

Social networking does not only enable users to connect with other people but also with brands and celebrities. Social media has also become a growing source of news for internet users in many countries.

In 2023, TikTok was the social media app with the highest user engagement by far, with 45 hours and 1 minute per month on average. Besides being the platform with the highest usage reach in Mexico during the analyzed period, Facebook ranked second in monthly usage, with 23 hours and 38 minutes monthly on average.

WhatsApp emerged as the most used social media app in India with users spending an average of 20 hours per month on the instant messaging platform in 2021. Facebook followed second with users spending just under 20 hours on average on it per month. The government-imposed ban on Tik Tok contributed to higher engagement on Meta Platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, among Indian users between 2020 and 2021.

In 2023, TikTok was the social media platform on which users spent the most time in Denmark, with a monthly average of 30.3 hours. Additionally, an average of 16.5 hours per month were spent on YouTube, while Facebook saw 15.52 hours of monthly engagement. Overall, LinkedIn was the social network with the lowest rate of average monthly usage, with less than an hour spent on the app.

The number of hours spent on social media in Sweden has fluctuated over the past few years. Swedish users spent around one hour and 57 minutes every day on social media as of January 2024, a decrease of one minute from the previous year. In 2021, an average of one hour and 48 minutes were spent on social networks per day, rising to over two hours in 2022.

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.

People in Japan on average spent 38.9 minutes per weekday on using social media in fiscal year 2023. The usage time decreased for the first time in five years.