How much time do people spend on social media every day?

How 159 minutes a day became the new global baseline - and how we got here

How much time do we spend on social media? GWI surveys users 16-64 in 54 countries. The average grew from 90 minutes/day in 2012 to 145 in 2020 (COVID peak), briefly settled at 143 minutes in 2024, and has climbed back to 159 minutes/day by 2026 as video-centric feeds (YouTube, TikTok) are now counted as part of social time. That's 2 hours 39 minutes, roughly 16% of our waking hours. Over a lifetime, over 6.5 years on social platforms.

What 159 minutes a day is actually doing to your brain, relationships, and sense of time

Time is the only truly finite resource. At 159 minutes of social and video feeds per day, the average person spends roughly 40 full days per year on platforms. Over a lifetime of use from age 16 to 75, that compounds to over 6.5 years of waking life - more than most people spend eating, or in face-to-face contact with their closest friends. For women aged 16-24, the figure is already above 3 h 40 min per day, or roughly 22% of waking hours.

The mental health research is contested but directional. Multiple large-scale studies (Twenge et al., JAMA Pediatrics 2019; Coyne et al., Computers in Human Behavior) find that heavy social media use correlates with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, particularly in teenage girls. The mechanism isn't the platforms themselves but two specific behaviors: passive scrolling (consuming without creating) and social comparison. Actively creating, commenting, and connecting with known people shows much weaker negative associations than passively watching others.

The subtlest effect is on attention. Neuroscientist Gloria Mark's research at UC Irvine found that after an interruption, it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully return to a deep-work task. Every social media check - even a 30-second glance - incurs this recovery cost. For knowledge workers, this is measurable lost productivity. For individuals, it is the slow erosion of the ability to think long thoughts. The person-years counter above is not just a time statistic; it is an attention statistic.

Daily social media time over time

Average daily social media time grew from 90 minutes in 2012 to 159 minutes in 2026, making social and video feeds collectively the most time-consuming discretionary activity in modern life after sleep and work.

Key social media time statistics

Social media time vs. time with friends, today

While 159 minutes/day disappear into social platforms, people now spend only 30 minutes/day in face-to-face contact with friends. The two statistics reveal a fundamental reallocation of social energy from in-person to digital.

Social media time: 2 hours 39 minutes that reshaped human attention

The research on social media, mental health, and attention

From 90 minutes to 159: how social and video feed time grew year by year

1. 201290 minutes/day, Facebook era; social media a secondary habit
2. 2016120 minutes/day, mobile-first social media; Instagram, Snapchat mainstream
3. 2018136 minutes/day, Stories format adds daily engagement loops
4. 2020145 minutes/day, peak; COVID-19 lockdowns drive all-time high
5. 2024143 minutes/day; 35.8% of all online time (pre-video-reclassification)
6. 2026159 minutes/day (18 h 36 min/week) including video-centric feeds; ~6.5-year lifetime total

In perspective

How the number is calculated

The 159 minutes/day global average comes from DataReportal's Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, citing GWI survey data across 54 countries (18 hours 36 minutes per week ÷ 7 = 159.4 min/day). This figure now explicitly includes time on video-centric social platforms like YouTube and TikTok alongside traditional social networks. To convert to a global collective rate: 159 min × 5.79 billion social media users = 920.6 billion minutes/day ÷ 1,440 min/day ÷ 365 days = 1.75 million person-years consumed per day. The live counter uses the per-person accumulation since midnight: seconds elapsed × 159/86,400.

Sources: DataReportal - Digital 2024: Time Spent on Social Media - Statusbrew - Social Media Time Statistics - DataReportal - Digital 2026 Global Overview Report: Time Spent on Social & Video Feeds - DataReportal - Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report (internet users 6 billion / 73.2 % of world population; 5.66 billion social media users; 1 billion monthly AI users). Methodology →

Frequently asked questions

How much time does the average person spend on social media per day?

As of 2026, the global average is 2 hours 39 minutes (159 minutes) per day among internet users aged 16-64, according to DataReportal's Digital 2026 Global Overview Report and GWI. That equates to 18 hours 36 minutes per week, or roughly 16% of the typical waking day.

How has social media usage changed over time?

Daily social media usage grew from 90 minutes/day in 2012 to 145 minutes/day in 2020 (COVID peak). It briefly dipped to 143 minutes in 2024 before climbing to 159 minutes in 2026, largely because GWI now counts time on video-centric platforms (YouTube, TikTok) alongside traditional social networks. Younger users are well above the average: women aged 16-24 average 25 hours 45 minutes per week (≈ 3 h 40 min/day).

Which countries spend the most time on social media?

Kenya leads globally at around 3 hours 30 minutes per day on pure social networks (excluding video feeds). Other high-usage countries include the Philippines, Nigeria, Brazil and South Africa. Japan and Germany remain among the lowest at under 1 hour per day.