How Much Time Do People Spend On Social Media?

Our respondents identify as Extremely Online, with 86 percent spending one to five or more hours on social media each day. Only 14 percent spend less than one hour per day scrolling social. We were surprised to learn that 77 percent of our respondents consider themselves social media influencers, suggesting a distinction between people who earn their primary income through paid social promotion deals, and people who consider their social posts influential to peers, family, and friends.

What Social Platforms Are Most Frequented?

40 percent of respondents visit Instagram and TikTok daily, closely followed by Meta (Facebook) and X (Twitter) at 37 percent. New platform Threads brings a solid 22 percent of daily users, the same as Pinterest. One percent of our respondents revealed that they visit Snapchat, YouTube, Substack, Quora, and WhatsApp daily.

Mental Health Conditions & Social Media

Resoundingly, our respondents believe social media can be positive for mental health. 88 percent think that social media raises awareness about mental health conditions.

In our survey, 44 percent of respondents have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, while 56 percent have not. Of those who have been diagnosed, 43 percent believe that social media helped facilitate receiving a formal diagnosis.

Who are they following for mental health information? It turns out, mostly therapists and mental health professionals, followed by people who share their condition. Influencers and celebrities comprise the smallest portions, with mental health advocates and brands in the middle.

How People Manage Social Media & Their Mental Health

Even though our survey respondents report an overall constructive relationship with social media, they believe in boundaries. In fact, 91 percent protect their energy on social media, opting to mindfully consume what they see in their feeds. To curate their feeds, they primarily elect to unfollow, self-manage, and take action.

Wallowing in Unfollowing

Of all methods for energy protection on social, unfollowing is king, with a combined 64 percent of respondents choosing to unfollow accounts that make them feel bad or people who induce jealousy.

“I unfollowed all news and political anything. I don’t want that on my feed,” said a respondent, whose eschewing of politics is echoed by others. “I unfollow political accounts that promote fear and hate,” stated another, while “people who put out fake and dangerous information” were also singled out.

Others eliminate “people who aren’t significant in my life anymore,” “people who promote unhealthy beliefs and behavior systems,” and “people who don’t inspire me.”

To Thine Own Self Be True

Many respondents adopt a mind-over-matter approach, utilizing emotional mindfulness to mitigate potential or actualized negative effects of social media. 37 percent endeavor to only visit certain platforms at certain times. “If I’m already agitated, I avoid social media completely,” reported one respondent. “I avoid using some forms of social media if I’m already feeling bad—mostly, it makes me angry and anxious so I try to be mindful of my levels of those things,” cited another.

People even vocalize mantras in response to negative stimuli on social: “If something makes me feel bad/unworthy/etc., I verbally remind myself that they/she/he are trivial to me in the large scheme of things.” Others endeavor to keep themselves “open-minded and in reality.”

Taking Action

Respondents take action to optimize their experience in ways beyond unfollowing. Some place parameters around their own posts: “I post content set to private so I can just enjoy it for myself and not worry about engagement or impressions.”

Others actively engage with the safeguards offered by different platforms to “report harmful content.” And many others operate under all-or-nothing time restraints: enter the social media detox. “I sometimes detox (don’t go on for a few days),” disclosed one respondent, and as we’ll get into in the next section, the vast majority take intentional breaks from social media.

Should You Take A Break From Social Media?

Engaging in a self-imposed detox is one of the most common ways our respondents maintain a healthy relationship with social media. 76 percent of respondents have taken a break from social media, and 5 percent have attempted to without completion. The most common length of a detox is less than a week, but many report staying off social for a month or even longer.

Even though 86 percent of our respondents are on social media between one and five hours per day, the vast majority take respites from it. And after a hiatus, how do they feel? Overwhelmingly positive. Good, excellent, and wonderful were the most commonly reported adjectives. Some were shocked to discover how positive they felt: “It was quite surprising, I felt relieved in a way where I didn’t go to my phone right away a situation was occurring. I would go through the moment and usually, I would hear my ringer go off and go check that notification. I didn’t have that source to go to and it felt freeing.”

However, others reported feeling anxious and disconnected. “Not really OK, and always sad about it,” reported one respondent while another felt “anxious and like I needed to reconnect.” People even began feeling anxiety pre-detox: “Before, anxious and after still anxious.”

Some responses indicate that a social media detox is a mixed bag: positive at points, while negative at others. “During the 2022 general election in Kenya, I decided to take a break from social media after my preferred candidate lost the presidential elections. I was happy since I couldn’t see the mockery from the winning side. I felt a sense of relief during those times. When I got back, I realized I had lost a lot in terms of news and even lost connection with some of my friends,” reported a respondent.

How Does Each Platform Make You Feel?

TikTok users note feeling happy 31 percent of the time, the strongest positive emotional association felt by users of any platform. 18 percent of TikTok users reported feeling connected while on the app. Contrastingly, the third strongest emotion associated with TikTok is inadequacy (reported by 17 percent of users).

The equally frequented platform Instagram provided the most correlated negative emotional association, with over 17 percent citing anxiety. Yet on Instagram, 27 percent of users feel happy, 24 percent feel connected, and 20 percent feel inspired. The same troika of emotions holds true on Pinterest, with users feeling primarily happy (23 percent), inspired (18 percent), and connected (16 percent).

Meta (Facebook) users denote feeling happy (29 percent), connected (24 percent), and identical parts (16.33 percent) stressed and inadequate. Over on X (Twitter), happy and connected follow suit as the top emotional experiences, rounded out with 16 percent feeling stressed. The top (22 percent) of users aren’t active on Threads, but those who are feel happy and connected.

LinkedIn spurred the most equitable spread of emotions, with 20 percent happy, 19 percent connected, 16 percent stressed, 15 percent anxious, 15 percent inspired, and 13 percent depressed.

Survey Demographics

Our survey consisted of 2,255 respondents who identify as 50 percent female, 48 percent male, 1 percent transgender, and less than 1 percent non-binary. The majority of respondents are 25-34 years old, followed by 35-44, and then 18-24.

Sources

StyleCaster, Mental. and The Mental Health Coalition: Social Media & Mental Health Survey 2023

Statista, Social Media Usage in the United States and Number of Social Media Users Worldwide

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