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Since its inception in 1997, social media has woven itself into our lives.
Across the globe, people eagerly log in to their favorite social media platforms day after day, immersing themselves for hours on end. The allure of social media is undeniable, drawing in millions like a powerful magnet.
But here’s the twist: it’s not just a pastime; it’s an addiction.
The effects of this digital obsession are only now coming to light, and let me tell you, the numbers are staggering.
Brace yourself for some mind-boggling social media addiction statistics that will leave you wide-eyed and scrolling for more!
What Will I Learn?
Can you name a friend or family member that isn’t on any social media platform?
Not likely.
Social media is used by almost everyone.
It doesn’t matter your age, where you come from, or your interests – there are social media platforms designed for everyone.
Let’s take a look at social media statistics about usage.
56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.
This equates to about 4.48 billion people that use social media worldwide. Both of these statistics are looking at eligible audiences aged 13 years and above.
It is estimated that more than half of the children aged 11 and 12 have personal social media profiles even though most social media platforms have a minimum age requirement of 13+ years old.
When it comes to the usage of social media by gender, it differs significantly.
Men and women are more engaged by different social media sites and they use them for different purposes.
The results of which gender uses which platforms are in:
| Female User (%) | Male User (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| Snapchat | 60 | 40 |
| 78 | 22 | |
| 57 | 43 | |
| 44 | 56 | |
| 32 | 68 | |
| 49 | 51 | |
| TikTok | 59 | 41 |
| YouTube | 45 | 55 |
Social media sites that have significantly more female users are:
In the past Facebook has had a higher user base of women compared to men.
More recently women have moved away from Facebook. This has resulted in Facebook having more men on the platform than women.
Men tend to use:
More than women do. It’s clear that some social media sites tend to be more attractive to different genders.
Regional use of social media has a significant effect on the male and female social media statistics:
| Female | Male | |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 54% | 46% |
| South America | 52% | 48% |
| Western Europe | 50% | 50% |
| Southern Africa | 52% | 48% |
| Southern Asia | 27% | 73% |
| Oceania | 53% | 47% |
Southern Asia has the most significant difference between male and female users. Almost 3 out of 4 social media accounts are for men in this region.
In all other regions, females are the biggest users with the exception of Western Europe, where it is even.
Worldwide women tend to use social media more than men. When you break it down by region women dominate all but one of the major regions in the world.
Women also spend more time on social media than men do.
Women spend an average of 2.08 hours a day on social media and men average 1.81 hours a day.
Gen Z and Millennials are the biggest social media users of all age groups.
There seems to be a trend that as you get older your social media usage tends to drop. This makes a lot of sense because the younger age groups are the ones that grew up with social media.
This is the breakdown of total users in each age group:
| Age Group | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| 18-29 | 84% |
| 30-49 | 81% |
| 50-64 | 73% |
| 65+ | 45% |
The drop from the 50-64 age group to 65+ is significant. This may be because people over 65+ never adapted to social media compared to other age groups.
The results might surprise you when looking at internet users that are active on social media in each country.
| Country | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| UAE | 105.5% |
| South Korea | 92% |
| Hong Kong | 89.9% |
| Netherlands | 88.1% |
| Canada | 85.7% |
| Spain | 85.6% |
| Germany | 85.1% |
| Singapore | 84.7% |
| Norway | 84.7% |
| Taiwan | 84.4% |
These statistics show the share of internet users in selected countries visiting social networking sites as of 2023.
The UAE has a huge number of social media users compared to the rest of the world. 105.5% of all internet users in the UAE actively use and visit at least one social media website.
South Korea, Hong Kong and the Netherlands are also big social media users.
The big English speaking countries such as the US and England don’t feature in the top 15 countries in the world. Surprising!
Each social media platform brings something unique to the table.
That’s why it’s not uncommon for most people to have multiple social media accounts on different platforms.
Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.
| Social Media Network | Users (in millions) |
|---|---|
| 3,049 | |
| YouTube | 2,491 |
| 2,000 | |
| 2,000 | |
| TikTok | 1,562 |
| 1,336 | |
| Facebook Messenger | 979 |
| Telegram | 800 |
| Douyin | 752 |
| Snapchat | 750 |
| Kuaishow | 685 |
| X/Twitter | 619 |
| Sina Weibo | 605 |
| 558 | |
| 482 |
Facebook has over 3 billion active users while YouTube has 2.49 billion active users.
Facebook was the first social media platform to ever pass the 1 billion active user mark.
Ever since its launch, Facebook has been the biggest social media platform when ranked by active user base.
Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes today for people aged 16 to 64.
That means the average person spends 144 minutes a day using social media.
When you multiply that out over the month… You find out that the average user spends 72 hours a month just on social media.
This might seem like a reasonable number but what if you calculate how much of your life in total will be spent on social media?
The current global life expectancy in 2024 is about 73 years.
If someone signs up for a social media account when they are 16 and lives until they are 73, they will spend a total of 2,995,920 minutes on social media.
That equates to be 5.7 years of your life dedicated to social media!
That is a long time to dedicate to anything, let alone a social media platform. Social media addiction is certainly a real thing and it can easily creep up on you.
It’s very unlikely you have just 1 social media account.
There are thousands of social media apps and platforms all over the world. They are all constantly fighting for your attention.
The average person has 8-9 social media accounts. This has doubled since 2013, when the average person just had 4-5 accounts.
| Year | Average Number of Social Media Accounts |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 4.3 |
| 2014 | 4.8 |
| 2015 | 6.3 |
| 2016 | 7.6 |
| 2017 | 8 |
| 2018 | 8.5 |
It’s important to know that messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are included in this statistic.
The number also varies significantly depending on the country.
But not all of the time spent on social media is for entertainment.
Social media has become very important for businesses. Most social media platforms make money by selling advertisements to businesses.
Active social media users connect with brands and buy products and services directly through the platforms themselves.
So what are the social media statistics on entertainment vs work?
Entertainment is the biggest reason people use social media.
More than 50% of users are on social media purely with the intent of being entertained. The biggest usage reasons are:
So most people are using social media for entertainment and connecting with friends and family daily. But there is still a huge amount of people utilising social media for work.
40% of all internet users worldwide use social media platforms for work-related purposes. This can include:
Note that out of that 40%, most of them also use social media for personal entertainment reasons as well.
Clearly, the average person spends a lot of time on social media.
But how many people have a social media addiction?
Over 210 million people worldwide suffer from social media addiction.
If you consider that there are currently 4.48 billion total social media users in the world that works out to be 4.69% of total users who have a social media addiction
In the US alone experts estimate that about 10% of social media users are addicted. This corresponds with the fact that 78% of Americans check and use social media every day.
Young adults tend to be the most affected by social media addiction. It is significantly higher amongst young single women.
90% of people aged 18-29 use social media in some form.
15% of people aged 23-38 admit that they are addicted to social media. These are the ones that are willing to admit it.
What are the effects of social media addictions?
40.6% of young people complain that their sleep has been significantly affected by social media alone.
The biggest reason was that 34% of young adults said that not being on social media caused them to feel like they were missing out on something (aka FOMO).
Lack of sleep has been proven to cause poor mental health amongst young adults.
This can include anything from increased potential for depression to a significant increase in anxiety and low self-esteem.
Teenagers are the 2nd largest group of people affected by social media addiction.
Teens ages 13 to 18 years old spend a significant amount of their free time on social media with an average of 3 hours a day.
Heavily social media addicted teenagers spend up to 9 hours on social media every day (per 24 hour period).
This works out to be 37% of their total day being spent on social media alone.
| Negative Social Media Affect | Low Emotional Well-Being (%) |
High Emotional Well-Being (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes I feel left out or excluded when using social media |
70% | 29% |
| Have deleted social media posts because they get too few “likes” |
43% | 13% |
| Feel bad about themselves if no one “comments on” or “likes” their posts |
43% | 11% |
| Have ever been cyberbullied | 35% | 5% |
43% of young people feel very bad if no one likes their social media posts.
This is a big driver for teens to be using social media constantly and posting things that get engagement.
It also seems that negative experiences on social media don’t stop teens from using it.
The mental health issues caused by social media addiction is very concerning.
Teens who spend more than 5 hours a day on their phones are 2x more likely to show depressive symptoms. Most social media is consumed on mobile devices, especially amongst teenagers.
7 out of 10 teens who use social media for more than 5 hours per day have a significantly greater risk of committing suicide.
Nighttime is actually one of the worst times for teens to be on social media. More often than not they have less parental supervision and are alone on their phones.
10% of teens check their phones more than 10x per night.
What is most concerning about social media use from teenagers is
The biggest growth in social media is with young children.
On average children spent 76% longer on social media apps in 2020 than they did in 2019. The more time children spend on social media now the more likely they will be addicted to it in their teenage years.
27% of children who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media display poor mental health.
This means that your child has a significantly increased risk of developing mental health issues if they use social media for more than 3 hours per day.
Videos seem to be the most engaging thing for children on social media.
The most addictive social media platforms are:
These platforms prioritise video content significantly and are very good at working out what content engages the user most so they can simply show more of it.
There you have it for social media addiction statistics.
It’s mind-blowing to see just how much people actively use social media every day.
Not only this but social media usage is growing – especially amongst younger children and teenagers.
We live in a society where social media is a part of almost every single aspect of our lives.
Platforms like TikTok have continued to create new forms of entertainment to keep us all coming back for more.
While social media does offer a lot of benefits, it can also pose a lot of threats.
If you don’t keep a close eye on how much you use social media, it can easily become a time-consuming addiction in your life.
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