How much time do people spend on social media?

Social media seems to be ubiquitous - but just how much of a factor is it in an average person's daily life? According to the 2016 Nielsen Social Media Report - it turns out that Americans spent an average of 36% more time on social media in 2016 than they did in 2015. Statista also corroborated that time spent on social media is on the rise, and those surveyed spent an average of just under 2 hours per day on social media in 2016, an amount that has increased each year. Global Web Index places the time spent on social media in 2016 at 1 hour and 50 minutes, which is 30% of all online time.

Nielsen found that the heaviest users spent over 3 hours a day on social media. According to Nielsen's report, the average time spent on social media by adults 18 and up is is 5.5 hours per week (seen below). This accounts for 22% of all media use surveyed (both on and offline). In a fact that is perhaps surprising, the youngest users surveyed were not the ones that spent the most time on social media. In fact, it was Generation X (ages 35-49) who clocked in with the most time  - almost 7 hours per week. Millennials spend just over 6 hours per week on social media. Females surveyed also spent more time on social media than males, and this was a larger percentage of all of their media consumption (25% vs. 19%).