As of the third quarter of 2024, internet users spent six hours and 38 minutes online daily. This is a slight increase in comparison to the previous quarter. Overall, between the third quarter of 2015 and the third quarter of 2024, the average daily internet use has increased by 19 minutes. Most online countries Internet users between 16 and 64 years old in South Africa spent the longest time online daily, nine hours and 27 minutes, followed by Brazil and the Philippines. These figures include the time spent using the internet on any device. In Japan, internet users spent around three hours and 57 minutes online per day. Users in Denmark also spent relatively less time on the internet, reaching about five hours daily. Most common online activities According to a 2024 survey, more than six in 10 people worldwide used the internet to find information. Furthermore, the usage of communication platforms was also a common reason for going online, followed by online content consumption, such as watching videos, TV shows, or movies.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 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 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 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.

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 the third quarter of 2024, female users between 16 and 24 years were the demographic group that spent the most time online, using the internet for around ***** hours and ** minutes daily. Male users, of the same age group, spent ***** hours and ** minutes daily online. Among the less active demographic groups were internet users aged 65 and older, who reported spending, on average, up to **** hours online daily.

As of May 2024, internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) spent over three hours daily on smartphones. Young consumers aged between 18 and 24 years reported spending over four and half hours of their online time on smartphones. The same audience spent around 40 minutes using tablets, and 46 minutes on computer devices each day while accessing the internet. The internet usage among individuals aged 65 and over was relatively lower, as they spent less than two hours daily using internet on smartphones, and even less than an hour on computer and tablet devices.

This statistic presents the average daily time spent online by internet users worldwide from 2011 to 2021, sorted by device. According to Zenith Optimedia, in 2018, the average daily minutes of desktop internet consumption per capita amounted to 39 minutes and is projected to slowly decline until 2020. However, daily mobile internet consumption is set to increase to 155 minutes in 2021.

From 2005 to 2020, the number of hours adults spent using the internet in a typical week has been steadily increasing in the United Kingdom (UK). As of 2020, the average time spent using the internet was 24.9 hours per week, an increase of 15 hours compared to 2005.

Internet usage in the UK

Over the last 20 years, the internet penetration rate has increased nearly three-fold in the UK, from 30 percent in 2000 to 87 percent as of 2019. During the latter year, over 90 percent of individuals in the UK accessed the internet at least once a day.

  E-commerce in the UK

The amount of online shopping that people in Great Britain are doing has increased since 2015 as well, with a penetration rate reaching 66 percent in the first quarter of 2019. The increase is more noticeable with smartphone users. According to the results of an annual interview conducted by the Office for National Statistics, most of the individuals in the UK purchased clothes or sports goods, at 60 percent, while a share of 34 percent of online consumers purchased books, magazines, and newspapers.

The average daily time spent with digital media in the United States is expected to increase from *** minutes (seven hours and 19 minutes) in 2022 to close to ***** 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 ** percent of U.S. respondents reported spending more time watching shows and films on streaming services, and ** 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.

According to a survey conducted among consumers worldwide, respondents watched an average of 19 hours of online video content per week in 2022. This represented an increase from 2021, when consumers watched 19 hours of online video content weekly.

As of the third quarter of 2024, almost 57 percent of the total daily time spent online by internet users was via mobile devices, including smartphones and feature phones. The remaining 43.2 percent of the time, they used computers. Five years before that, the picture was quite different, as smartphones comprised around 47 percent of the daily internet usage time.

According to a report published by DataReportal, as of the third quarter of 2024, Thai internet users spent approximately * hours and ** minutes online. In the same period, watching television, using social media, and reading press media were among the leading activities for Thai internet users.

As of January 2022, online users in the United States were spending approximately ** hours per week watching online streaming videos. Online gaming occupied approximately **** hours for each online user in the country, while streaming music was the third most popular online activity with more than ** hours of weekly engagement. Online dating recorded an engagement of approximately *** hours per week among online users in the United States.

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.

As of the second quarter of 2024, internet users in Russia spent around **** hours and ** minutes online daily, ranking first among other examined European markets. Portugal ranked second, with ***** hours and ** minutes, and Bulgaria followed, with its users spending ***** hours and ** minutes online daily. Among researched markets, internet users in Denmark spent the least time online using the internet, around **** hours and **** minutes.

This statistic presents the average daily time spent online via mobile by internet users in Asia Pacific during the first quarter of 2015, sorted by age group. As of the reported period, it was found that internet users aged 16 to 24 years spent an average of 186 minutes on mobile internet services every day.

During the third quarter of 2024, internet users worldwide spent **** percent of their time browsing the internet via mobile phones. Between the third quarter of 2013 and the end of 2024, internet usage via mobile has experienced a growth trend.

In 2023, over 56 percent of the time spent on social media platforms for users in the United States was spent on social video activities. This represents an increase from the previous year, when the time spent engaging with social video among U.S. users was of around 53.3 percent, compared to 46.7 percent of the total social media time spent on other social network activities.

This statistic shows the results of a survey conducted in 2018 on the time spent online by children in Norway, divided into different age groups and by gender. Most time on the internet was spent by kids aged between 15 and 17 years, which was nearly five hours daily on average. In addition, girls tended to spend more time online than boys, or four hours on average.

During the third quarter of 2024, internet users in the United States spent over *** hours daily using the internet, with over *** hours spent viewing video content on TV (both broadcast and streamed) as well as more than * hours devoted to using social media platforms. This substantial amount of time spent with online media reflects a significant trend in consumption habits, which have been influenced by the need for inexpensive, faster, and more accessible entertainment. Media Consumption Trends and Future Plans The average daily time spent with digital media in the United States is expected to increase from *** minutes (seven hours and ** minutes) in 2022 to close to * hours by the end of 2025. This pivot is dictated by the ease of access of online entertainment and variety of content available on numerous platforms.According to a survey conducted in April 2023, the majority of consumers in the United States were not planning to make any major changes to most of their media habits in the following year. However, a notable ** percent planned to increase their time spent listening to podcasts. In general, there was an evident shift towards reducing or ending paid subscriptions to numerous media services. Free entertainment is on social A survey conducted in June 2023 highlighted that adults in the United States spent more time per day on TikTok than on any other leading social media platform, with an average of **** minutes per day. The video sharing network gained more popularity with users than YouTube and Twitter. This underlines the growing interest in short form video and fast entertainment options. Today consumers step away from traditional media and dive into online offers.