Time spent on social media has been declining steadily since 2022, according to a study by the Financial Times and GWI.
The FT commissioned GWI to analyse the media consumption habits of 250,000 adults over the age of 16 in over 50 countries and found that people spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social media platforms — a near 10% drop since 2022.
And that drop in social media usage is ‘not just the unwinding of a bump in screen time during pandemic lockdowns’, according to the FT, which reports that ‘usage has traced a smooth curve up and down over the past decade-plus’.
GWI research from 2023 also found that the average time spent on social media was 2 hours and 26 minutes per day, which was lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The US was one of the few countries that bucked this trend in 2023. Similarly, FT’s study now found that the US is the only country where time spent on social media continues to increase, with consumption levels in 2024 being 15% higher than in Europe.
We Are Social’s Digital 2025 Global Overview Report found that the average daily time spent on social media in the UK fell by 10.5% year over year, to one hour and 37 minutes. One reason for this drop is the growing interest in managing online time and wellbeing.
Ofcom’s Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report from 2024 analysed people’s screen time and discovered that 48% of young adults (ages 16-24) said they spend too much time on social media. Sixty-eight percent of the surveyed internet users said they have adopted strategies to manage the time they spend online, and 22% said they have taken deliberate breaks from social media platforms.
But although time spent on social media is falling, the number of social media users is still growing. We Are Social’s report also found that there are 5.24 billion active social media users worldwide — a 4.1% increase from the previous year.
As time spent on social media falls, expect to see more platforms introducing new revenue streams. On 1 October, for example, Snapchat announced its plans to start charging users to store their saved photos and videos.
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