Americans might not be as active online as you may think.
They spend just about half of their day surfing the web, according to a new poll.
“This new survey was eye-opening for the Optimum team. We were amazed to see how many hours folks are watching, shopping and browsing online on a daily basis,” Eric Bruno, senior vice president of product management for the telecommunications firm Optimum, said in a statement alongside the findings.
So, what are we doing on the World Wide Web for more than 10 hours a day?
According to the 2,000 adult residents included in the survey, we’re browsing, paying bills, and buying that new Labubu doll.
Of those 10 hours, people spend about five hours every day watching videos and 5.4 hours online, Optimum found.
Broken down further, 79 percent browsed, 77 percent paid bills, 72 percent online shopped, and 73 percent doom scrolled on social media. Only 37 percent handled work assignments and 20 percent did school work.
Notably, some 55 percent of the respondents said that they prefer to stream a majority of their five hours of videos each day on a television over any other device. More than 40 percent said they preferred to use their phone for online activities, rather than a computer or tablet.
“It underscores how important strong, affordable, and reliable internet has become in today’s world,” Bruno said.
The participants were sourced from a third party and subscribed or use home internet service between May 6 to May 14 of this year.
However, previous research had shown even higher totals for daily online time, and that American internet users may spend around 18 years of their adult life online.
While AllConnect reported in 2023 than one in three U.S. adults report trying to cut back on online time at some point, many may not have much of a choice.
“The reality is that so much of our screen time these days is unavoidable,” Alex Turvy, a researcher at Tulane University studying social media and internet culture, told Forbes in March of last year.
