As of the third quarter of 2024, internet users in South Africa spent more than **** hours and ** minutes online per day, ranking first among the regions worldwide. Brazil followed, with roughly **** hours of daily online usage. As of the examined period, Japan registered the lowest number of daily hours spent online, with users in the country spending an average of over **** hours per day using the internet. The data includes the daily time spent online on any device. Social media usage In recent years, social media has become integral to internet users' daily lives, with users spending an average of *** minutes daily on social media activities. In April 2024, global social network penetration reached **** percent, highlighting its widespread adoption. Among the various platforms, YouTube stands out, with over *** billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular social media platforms. YouTube’s global popularity In 2023, the keyword "YouTube" ranked among the most popular search queries on Google, highlighting the platform's immense popularity. YouTube generated most of its traffic through mobile devices, with about 98 billion visits. This popularity was particularly evident in the United Arab Emirates, where YouTube penetration reached approximately **** percent, the highest in the world.

In 2021, adults in the U.S. spent an average of *** minutes (eight hours and five minutes) with digital media each day. This figure marked an increase of ** 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 *** minutes per day using analog media and entertainment formats such as television, radio, or print media. In contrast, they devoted an estimated *** 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.

As of November 2024, users worldwide spent more than ** hours using the YouTube mobile app per month. Users in South Korea spent an average of approximately ** hours and ** minutes engaging with video content on the YouTube app, while users in Switzerland spent less than ** hours monthly on the app. In the United States, each user spent approximately ***** hours on the mobile app of the popular social video platform in 2024.

In 2024, more than 35 percent of the time that users worldwide spent on mobile devices was spent on social media apps. Entertainment apps represented the second most engaging category for mobile users, with a share of 32.7 percent of the total time spent on mobile apps. Utility and productivity apps were the third most engaging apps for global users, with around 14 percent of the total time spent on mobiles being spent on apps in this category.

According to a global survey conducted in 2021, respondents who belonged to Generation Z reported spending on average three hours per day on social media. Overall, Millennials stated that they spent 2.25 hours per day on online social platforms. Those belonging to the Baby boomer generation spent an average one hour on social media, daily.

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 *** minutes in June 2024, compared to June 2023 when U.S. users spent approximately *** minutes using the app. In comparison, Facebook users in the U.S. spent around *** minutes on the social media app, compared to *** minutes registered the year before.

In 2024, TikTok was the social media app with the highest user engagement by far, with 45 hours and 25 minutes spent on the platforms per month on average. Besides being the platform with the second highest usage reach in Mexico during the analyzed period, Facebook ranked third in monthly usage, with 17 hours and 55 minutes monthly on average.

Between October 2020 and March 2021, female users spent approximately 62.59 minutes per day using social media apps on their smartphones and mobile devices. By comparison, male users spent approximately 49.53 minutes on social media apps daily.

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, **** percent of respondents were using social media *** hours additional hours per day. A further **** percent used social media ** minutes to *** hour more than usual per day. Only *** percent of users were adding ******************** 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.

According to a study conducted in March 2023, social video users aged between 15 to 24 in the United Kingdom (UK) spent ** minutes per day on ****** and ** minutes per day on ********. Overall, ******** was the most used social platform, with users over 15 years spending ** minutes per day on the network. ****************************** was used for just **** minutes per day by UK users over 15 years of age.

It was found that consumers in the United States, aged between 18 and 34 years, spent *** hours and ** minutes per week listening to the radio. The same age group spent the largest amount of time on an app or the web via their smartphones at that time.

In 2023, persons aged 15 years and older in the United States spent over five hours on sports and leisure activities per day. The average daily time spent watching TV was 2.67 hours while reading took up 0.26 hours per day in 2023.

During the third quarter of 2024, online users in the United States spent around six hours and 40 minutes daily using the internet. Of this, three hours and 22 minutes were via mobile phones. Computers and tablets account for around three hours and 18 minutes online in the United States.

Between January 2022 and January 2023, connected TVs saw online audiences in the United States spend around 131 billion hours on content. Online video providers engaged users for 125 billion hours in the examined period. Overall, U.S. users spent around 121 billion hours on entertainment sites and apps, as well as 82 billion hours on e-mail and online services.

In the third quarter of 2024, internet users aged over 16 years in Taiwan spent seven hours and 23 minutes per day on average browsing the internet. Time spent on watching TV and video streaming ranged about 2.5 hours, while another two hours being directed to social media.

As of November 2024, each Instagram user in India spent on average around 20 hours and 27 minutes using the Instagram mobile app per month. In comparison, each Instagram user in Vietnam spent around two hours and 13 minutes using the Instagram mobile app per month.

The number of hours spent on social media in Sweden has fluctuated over the past few years. Swedish users spent around two hours and one minute every day on social media as of February 2025, a marginal increase 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 the third quarter of 2024, adults in Brazil were spending **** hours and **** minutes using the internet on any device. Time spent watching TV, both broadcast and via streaming, reached **** hours in the measured period.

In April 2024, Italian users spent over 23 hours per month on member communities like social networks, and more than 11 chatting on instant messaging applications. Videos and movie consumption was over seven hours per user per month, while the time spent sending and receiving e-mail communications was around three hours per user as of the examined period.

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