It’s no secret that social media is a massive and pervasive presence in our everyday lives, even if it’s difficult to get a firm handle on how much time it really consumes in the course of our lives. But a study from Mediakix shows that we’re probably spending more time on social media than we think.
As social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube roll out new features designed to keep us in-app longer, the amount of time we spend on social networks increases. And because we’re spending so much time there, social media is becoming more and more valuable to marketers and advertisers who pay for our increasingly divided attention.
YouTube commands the majority of time spent on social (unsurprising, given the nature of the content on the platform and the way in which people use it), with Facebook coming in second ahead of Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. All told, over a lifetime, the average person will spend five years and four months on social media — more time than is typically spent eating and drinking but slightly less than the average amount of time spent watching TV. It’s also enough time to fly to the moon and back 32 times, or to climb Mount Everest 32 times.
