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.

This database is comprised of 603 participants who provided self-report data online in their school classrooms. The data was collected in 2016 and 2017. The dataset is comprised of 208 males (34%) and 395 females (66%). Their ages ranged from 12 to 15 years. Their age in years at baseline is provided. The majority were born in Australia. Data were drawn from students at two Australian independent secondary schools. The data contains total responses for the following scales: The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12; Short form; Carleton et al, 2007) is a 12-item scale measuring two dimensions of Prospective and Inhibitory intolerance of uncertainty. Two subscales of the Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS; Schniering & Rapee, 2002) were administered. The Peronalising and Social Threat were each composed of 10 items. UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) which is comprised of 12 items. Dispositional Envy Scale (DES; Smith et al, 1999) which is comprised of 8 items. Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS; Spence, 1998) which is comprised of 44 items. Three subscales totals included were the GAD subscale (labelled SCAS_GAD), the OCD subscale (labelled SCAS_OCD) and the Social Anxiety subscale (labelled SCAS_SA). Each subscale was comprised of 6 items. Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y; Greco et al., 2008) which is comprised of 17 items. Distress Disclosure Index (DDI; Kahn & Hessling, 2001) which is comprised of 12 items. Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire-10 (RTQ-10; McEvoy et al., 2014) which is comprised of 10 items. The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Straightforward Items (BFNE-S; Rodebaugh et al., 2004) which is comprised of 8 items. Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ; Angold et al., 1995) which is comprised by 13 items. The Self-Compassion Scale Short Form (SCS-SF; Raes et al., 2011) which is comprised by 12 items. The subscales include Self Kindness, Self Judgment, Social Media subscales - These subscale scores were based on social media questions composed for this project and also drawn from three separate scales as indicated in the table below. The original scales assessed whether participants experience discomfort and a fear of missing out when disconnected from social media (taken from the Australian Psychological Society Stress and Wellbeing Survey; Australian Psychological Society, 2015a), style of social media use (Tandoc et al., 2015b) and Fear of Missing Out (Przybylski et al., 2013c). The items in each subscale are listed below. Pub_Share Public Sharing When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details onlinec On social media how often do you write a status updateb On social media how often do you post photosb Surveillance_SM On social media how often do you read the newsfeed On social media how often do you read a friend’s status updateb On social media how often do you view a friend’s photob On social media how often do you browse a friend’s timelineb Upset Share On social media how often do you go online to share things that have upset you? Text private On social media how often do you Text friends privately to share things that have upset you? Insight_SM Social Media Reduction I use social media less now because it often made me feel inadequate FOMO I am afraid that I will miss out on something if I don’t stay connected to my online social networksa. I feel worried and uncomfortable when I can’t access my social media accountsa. Neg Eff of SM I find it difficult to relax or sleep after spending time on social networking sitesa. I feel my brain ‘burnout’ with the constant connectivity of social mediaa. I notice I feel envy when I use social media.
I can easily detach from the envy that appears following the use of social media (reverse scored) DES_SM Envy Mean acts online Feeling envious about another person has led me to post a comment online about another person to make them laugh Feeling envious has led me to post a photo online without someone’s permission to make them angry or to make fun of them Feeling envious has prompted me to keep another student out of things on purpose, excluding her from my group of friends or ignoring them. Substance Use: Two items measuring peer influence on alcohol consumption were adapted from the SHAHRP “Patterns of Alcohol Use” measure (McBride, Farringdon & Midford, 2000). These items were “When I am with friends I am quite likely to drink too much alcohol” and “Substances (alcohol, drugs, medication) are the immediate way I respond to my thoughts about a situation when I feel distressed or upset. Angold, A., Costello, E. J., Messer, S. C., & Pickles, A. (1995). Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5(4), 237–249. Australian Psychological Society. (2015). Stress and wellbeing in Australia survey. https://www.headsup.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/stress-and-wellbeing-in-australia-report.pdf?sfvrsn=7f08274d_4 Greco, L.A., Lambert, W. & Baer., R.A. (2008) Psychological inflexibility in childhood and adolescence: Development and evaluation of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth. Psychological Assessment, 20, 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.20.2.9 Kahn, J. H., & Hessling, R. M. (2001). Measuring the tendency to conceal versus disclose psychological distress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20(1), 41–65. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.20.1.41.22254 McBride, N., Farringdon, F. & Midford, R. (2000) What harms do young Australians experience in alcohol use situations. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 24, 54–60 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-842x.2000.tb00723.x McEvoy, P.M., Thibodeau, M.A., Asmundson, G.J.G. (2014) Trait Repetitive Negative Thinking: A brief transdiagnostic assessment. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 5, 1-17. Doi. 10.5127/jep.037813 Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in human behavior, 29(4), 1841-1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014 Raes, F., Pommier, E., Neff, K. D., & Van Gucht, D. (2011). Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the self-compassion scale. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 18(3), 250-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.702 Rodebaugh, T. L., Woods, C. M., Thissen, D. M., Heimberg, R. G., Chambless, D. L., & Rapee, R. M. (2004). More information from fewer questions: the factor structure and item properties of the original and brief fear of negative evaluation scale. Psychological assessment, 16(2), 169. https://doi.org/10.1037/10403590.16.2.169 Schniering, C. A., & Rapee, R. M. (2002). Development and validation of a measure of children’s automatic thoughts: the children’s automatic thoughts scale. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(9), 1091-1109. . https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00022-0 Smith, R. H., Parrott, W. G., Diener, E. F., Hoyle, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (1999). Dispositional envy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(8), 1007-1020. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672992511008 Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(5), 545-566. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00034-5 Tandoc, E. C., Ferrucci, P., & Duffy, M. (2015). Facebook use, envy, and depression among college students: Is facebooking depressing? Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 139–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.053 Whiteside, S.P. & Lynam, D.R. (2001) The five factor model and impulsivity: using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences 30,669-689. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00064-7 The data was collected by Dr Danielle A Einstein, Dr Madeleine Fraser, Dr Anne McMaugh, Prof Peter McEvoy, Prof Ron Rapee, Assoc/Prof Maree Abbott, Prof Warren Mansell and Dr Eyal Karin as part of the Insights Project. The data set has the option of downloading an excel file (composed of two worksheet tabs) or CSV files 1) Data and 2) Variable labels.