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Social media has become a huge part of day-to-day life, with a recent study finding that adults in the UK spend a daily average of four hours 20 minutes online.
The study, published by Ofcom the regulator for communication services in the UK, shows people are now spending a high amount of time online.
“Young adults spent the most time online, with 18-24-year-olds spending a daily average of 6 hours 1 minute online, and those aged 65+ spending the least time online (3 hours 10 minutes).”
How the UK compares to the US
While the statistics out of the UK sound high, it’s worse in the U.S. Fortune reported that Americans spend an average of seven hours and three minutes online a day.
Women in the UK were found to spend more time plugged into the web than men across all adult age groups, with the highest difference being amongst Gen Z women. Those in the 18-24 category spend more than an hour longer online than their male counterparts (6 hours 36 minutes vs 5 hours 28 minutes.)
Google and Meta dominance
The research has been focused on May of 2024, with almost half (48%) of the time UK adults spent online being on services owned by Alphabet or Meta.
Alphabet is Google’s parent company which acquired the video sharing platform YouTube in 2006. Meta is another technology company that dominates the online space, as they own several brands including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
“In May 2024, UK adults spent an average of 2 hours 4 minutes a day on services owned by these two organizations.
“Alphabet remains the highest reaching organization visited by almost all online adults (99%), with 94% visiting YouTube, spending an average of 49 minutes a day on it. Meta was not far behind as the second highest reaching organization (96%).”
In total, a huge 70% of UK online adults visited all top three Meta-owned platforms – Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
“Although Facebook and Messenger was Meta’s highest-reaching service among adults (at 91%), there is a notable difference in the time spent on it by adult age groups.
“Facebook users aged 18-24 are the least engaged with the service, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the platform, much lower than the average time spent by adults overall (39 mins).”
