How Much Time People Spend on Social Media? [2024 Stats]

Social Media has become an integral part of our routine lives these days. It’s hard to imagine a world without it at this point. From work to entertainment, information, shopping, and even finding pleasure, there are plenty of purposes to spend time on social media.

But how much time do people spend on social media apps? Which app gets the biggest share of that? And what are they doing there? Find out here.

Suppose you have similar questions in your mind. In that case, we have processed the latest data and research papers to find key stats about people’s time on social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Let’s find out how much time we spend on different social media platforms daily and how it affects our lives.

What’s The Average Time People Spend On Social Media In 2024?

Nowadays, people are seen scrolling social media whenever they have some spare time on their hands. They don’t realize how much time they spend switching between various social media apps. However, the latest data confirms people’s average time on these platforms.

In 2022, people’s average time on social media worldwide was 2 hours and 27 minutes (147 minutes) a day. The numbers have increased to 2 hours and 36 minutes as of March 2023. In 2021, people spent 2 hours and 25 minutes daily on social media worldwide.

This figure remained the same from 2019 to 2021 and got a 2-minute jump last year. Around a decade back, in 2012, people’s average time on social media worldwide was only one and a half hours (90 minutes) a day.

This rose to 95 minutes in 2013 and 104 minutes the following year. The number hit the 100-minute mark for the first time in 2014.

Since then, the average continued rising, reaching 111 minutes in 2015, 128 minutes in 2016, and 134 minutes in 2017. Between 2012 and 2022, the average time spent on social media worldwide increased by 63.3% of 57 minutes.

Average Time Spent On Social Media By Country:

Globally, there are over 5.16 billion internet users, 64.4% of the world’s population. Out of these, 4.76 billion are social media users, 59.4% of the world’s population. Of all these, 4.62 billion users actively used social media in 2022.

China and India have the highest number of social media users. The former has 1.02 billion social networking users, while the latter has 722 million. The United States ranks third with more than 302 million social media users.

However, Nigeria is the country where people spend the most time on social media. According to Statista, Nigerians spend around 4 hours and 7 minutes daily on social networking platforms. Meanwhile, the global average of social media users spending time online is 2 hours and 36 minutes as of March 2023.

The people from the Philippines come second as they spend around 3 hours and 43 minutes on social media, while Indians come third by spending 2 hours and 39 minutes on social media. According to a survey, adults from the United States spend around 45 minutes daily on social networking platforms.

Time Spent On Social Media Demographics- Age & Gender:

Gen Z and Millenials are more addicted to social media than older generations. We are not saying this, but various surveys in the U.S. have proved this. 26% of all social media platforms are aged 18 to 29 years. However, teenagers (aged 13 to 17) tend to spend the most time on social media compared to any age group as of this year.

On average, teenagers spend around 8 hours and 39 minutes per day on screens. Social media usage is their top activity during this. Meanwhile, young adults (aged 18 to 29) spend around 7 hours and 22 minutes on their screens, and their top activity is social media usage.

Tweens (aged 8 to 12) also have a significantly high screen time these days, with an average of 5 hours and 33 minutes, up from 4 and 44 minutes a couple of years back. However, their top activity is video streaming, and social media comes second.

Adults (30 to 49) and older adults (50+) spend the least time on social media. On average, adults spend around 4 to 5 hours on screen while older people use their screens for less than 4 hours daily. However, the top activity of both people is social media usage.

If we compare males to females, females spend more time on social media. An average female spends around 12 hours and 11 minutes on social media weekly, while males spend around 10 hours and 58 minutes scrolling social networking platforms.

How Much Time Do People Spend On Each Social Media App?

There are over 100 social media platforms that people regularly use. Out of these, people spend the most time on the top 10 to 20 apps and websites. One fascinating fact is that half of the time people use their phones worldwide in 2024 is reserved for social networking sites.

According to a survey conducted by Earth Web, 50.1% of the time spent on mobile is used for social media usage. The world’s population is around 7.96 billion. Out of these, 5.34 billion are mobile phone users. In 2022, there were 4.32 billion unique mobile internet users out of 5.03 billion global active internet users.

According to the latest data, internet users are averaging around 5.5 hours daily on their phones. During this time, they mostly use social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc. On average, a social media user actively uses over 7 platforms each month.

Indians come on top of this stat as they use around 8.7 platforms each month. Meanwhile, American and British social media users actively use 6 to 7 platforms per month. This number varies with age, gender, and demographics.

Facebook:

Facebook is the most popular and most used social media app in 2024. According to Broadband Search, on average, a user spends around 33 minutes daily on Facebook globally. However, this number is decreasing in the last few years as the younger generation is migrating toward apps like TikTok and Instagram.

Since 2017, Facebook has lost around 15 million users. Meanwhile, TikTok and Instagram have become Gen-Z’s and Millenials’ favourite platforms. Still, there are over 2.91 billion active Facebook users worldwide out of 4.7 billion social media users in 2022.

According to Statista, American adults spend around 33 minutes daily on the Facebook app. However, this figure was 39 minutes in 2017. The top reason people use Facebook is networking, while media watching is the second.

WhatsApp:

WhatsApp is the second most used social media platform. It’s an instant messenger that lets people connect. Connective says an average user opens WhatsApp 23 to 25 times daily. An Android user spends around 38 minutes on WhatsApp daily, while this number is a bit less for iOS users.

Around 40% of global Internet users make active use of WhatsApp. Every day, there are 65 billion messages sent via WhatsApp, and 2 billion minutes of calls are made daily through the app. This is a significant surge from 43 billion daily messages recorded in 2017.

However, WhatsApp usage has been decreasing lately as younger generations transition to other apps for messaging. Global users of WhatsApp spent around 19 hours a month in 2020, but this number declined to 18.6 hours per month in 2021.

India is the biggest market for WhatsApp, with over 390 million users, while Brazil comes second with 108 million users. The United States is third, with around 75 million active users.

Instagram:

Instagram is the third-most used social media platform after Facebook and WhatsApp, with over 2.35 billion active users worldwide. An Instagram user spends around 29 minutes on the platform daily. The monthly average of Instagram users totals around 11.7 hours.

India is the biggest market for Instagram, with more than 229.55 million active users while the U.S. comes second with more than 143.35 million users. Brazil comes third with 113.5 million users. Interestingly, 31% of Instagram’s user base, around 446.4 million, is aged 18 to 24.

Regarding the mobile app user base, Instagram is ranked fourth worldwide, behind Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube. According to a survey, it’s the second most favourite social media app of Americans and claimed the spot of its sister site Facebook.

Snapchat:

Snapchat is among the fastest-growing social media apps lately? Users are spending around 31 minutes per day on Snapchat as of 2024. This is a minute increase from last year. The social media app has around 383 million active users as of Q1 2023, a significant jump from 375 million in Q4 2022.

India is the leading market of Snapchat users, with over 144 million, while the U.S. comes second with 107 million. It has become one of the favourite apps of the younger generation due to features like Snapchat Streaks, Filters, Scores, and others.

Pinterest:

Pinterest is one of the less-talked-about social media platforms, but it has a solid user base. According to the stats shared by Pinterest, it had around 463 million monthly active users in April 2023. This helps it become the 14th most used social media platform currently.

However, Pinterest users don’t spend as much time as other social app users do. On average, a Pinterest user spends around 14.2 minutes daily on the app scrolling through Pins and Boards. One interesting stat about Pinterest is that 45% of U.S. adults with a household income of more than $100k use the app.

YouTube:

YouTube is the biggest video streaming platform and social media app. Google-owned service has over 2.6 billion monthly active users as of Q1 2023. On average, YouTube users spend around 19 minutes and 39 seconds daily on the platform.

India is the biggest market for YouTube, with over 467 million users while the U.S. comes second with 247 million users. Brazil comes third with 142 million users, while Indonesia is placed fourth with 139 million users. Around 70% of YouTube visits come from mobile.

One interesting fact about YouTube is that it’s the second most visited website and the second most used search engine after Google. Young people use YouTube the most, watching around 56 minutes of videos daily. However, TikTok has recently provided very tough competition to the platform.

Another fascinating stat is that 79% of all internet users own a YouTube account. It’s only second in this aspect, behind Facebook, which scored 85%. However, YouTube beats Facebook in terms of most active users on the Web.

Twitter:

Twitter is another popular social media platform, with 396.5 million active users as of Q1 2023. According to HootSuite, 90% of the U.S. population is familiar with Twitter. The fact that the United States is the biggest market for Twitter, with more than 95.4 million users, proves it.

Japan comes second with around 67.5 million users. However, the recent turmoil at the social networking company after billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover led to it losing users. Still, an average Twitter user spends around 5.1 hours monthly on the platform.

According to a survey, a single Twitter session lasts for 3 minutes and 39 seconds for an average user. Most Twitter visits (80%) come from mobile while only 20% are from desktops and other devices. Adults aged between 24 and 35 years are the most significant Twitter demographic.

TikTok:

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media app which is making users sheerly addicted. The Chinese app has been involved in numerous controversies, but that doesn’t stop it from crossing the 1 billion users mark worldwide. It is now the third-largest social networking platform.

On average, TikTok users spend around 55.8 minutes on the app. This number is expected to reach 58.4 minutes per day by 2024. Young people and children love TikTok. According to Statista, young people aged 12 to 28 spend around 91 minutes on TikTok daily.

The U.S. is the biggest market for TikTok, with over 140.6 million active users aged 18 and above, while Indonesia comes second with 106.9 million users. Brazil comes third with 74 million users. India would’ve topped this leaderboard, but the Chinese short-videos app is banned in the country.

Messenger:

Messenger (or Facebook Messenger) is the seventh most popular social media app worldwide. It boasts around 1.036 billion users. According to research, 82% of U.S. adults choose Messenger as their most preferred and used messaging app.

In the United States, people spend around three hours per month on Facebook Messenger. This number hasn’t changed since 2021. Teenagers and young adults spend more time on Messenger than children and older people.

Reddit:

Reddit is the ultimate social media app that we’ll focus on here. It remains to be the dark corner of the web where intellectuals meet. However, the platform has been growing at a good pace recently. Reddit has around 52 million daily active users, the tenth most popular social media app in the U.S.

By the end of 2023, Reddit is expected to gain around 5.79 million more daily active users and reach 55.79 million. It’s expected to gain 13.65 million more users by 2025. Globally, Reddit users spend around 15 minutes on the platform every day. This is only for the users that are logged in to their accounts.

Many other users use the platform without logging in. Reddit has more than 1 billion registered users and attracted 430 monthly users in 2022. There are more than 100k communities on Reddit.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Final Verdict:

Social media has become a key part of our lives, and we spend a significant amount of time daily using these apps. However, it could be a good thing or a bad one. The differentiator is how you are using the platforms. Some people only waste their time on social networking sites, while others reap great benefits.

A mix of both with the right balance is a wise option. Social media platforms are to pass the time and find entertainment and serve deeper purposes. Using them thoughtfully can do wonders. That’s all for this post. If you have any doubts or queries, feel free to use the comment box.