Wealthy Countries Spend Less Time on Social Media

Survey data gathered by market research company GWI shows the average daily time on social media in several countries. Our chart shows the correlation between that metric and each country’s GDP per person. The trend is stunning: wealthy nations tend to spend less time on social media than less-developed ones. Latin Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 34 minutes on social media, the most out of all regions surveyed. The app grabbing most of the attention in 3 out of the 4 LatAm countries surveyed was WhatsApp. The other was Facebook, in Mexico.

Social media has transformed the way we interact. Since the first social media platform, Myspace, launched in 2003, more than half of the world - an estimated 4.62 Billion people - actively use social media. Most of them use one of the Meta platforms; Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram. Although the positives of a more connected world are undeniable — wealth creation and access to information — social media’s dark side has been more talked about in recent years.

Meta has come under scrutiny for wide-ranging issues like too much censorship, not enough censorship, organization of violent attacks, and causing mental health issues for teenagers, among many others. We’ve all had days in which we regret using social media too much. Research from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that cutting down usage to 30 minutes per day can significantly reduce feelings of depression and loneliness.

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