Revealed: The actual period of time the common Briton spends scrolling on their smartphone every day – with ladies clocking up 33 minutes greater than males
A new study has revealed exactly how much time the average Briton spends scrolling on their phone each day.
But the results show that there are big differences between how long men and women spend online and what they do with their devices.
Ofcom‘s Online Nation report shows that the average Briton spends four hours and 20 minutes online each day – around a quarter of their waking lives.
However, it is women who are the most avid internet users, clocking up 33 minutes more than men on average.
In total, women spend four hours and 36 minutes online per day, while men spend four hours and 3 minutes online per day, the new report reveals.
This difference is most pronounced among phone-obsessed Gen Z women, who spend more than an hour longer online than their male counterparts.
Women aged 18-24 spend a staggering six hours and 36 minutes online, compared to five hours and 28 minutes for men of the same age.
However, the study also found that men spend much more time accessing generative AI, using online dating, and watching pornography.
Ofcom’s latest report on Britain’s internet habits found that women spend 33 minutes longer online each day than men. In 2024, the average woman spent four hours and 36 minutes on their devices (stock photo)
An Ofcom spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘This report is a real deep dive into what people are doing online, and we were struck by the differences between the sexes in the data – and by women’s different experiences of life online.’
Ofcom’s latest edition of the annual Online Nation report gathers data from all around the country to see exactly how people are spending their time online.
The results show that Gen Z (18-24) spend the most time online of any age demographic, using the internet for an hour longer than those aged 25-34.
The average person aged 18-24 spent just over six hours online in 2024, compared to just four hours and three minutes for someone aged 45-54.
A large chunk of Gen Z’s online time was dominated by TikTok which is used by three-quarters of 18-25s.
The average woman aged 18-25 spent one hour and 17 minutes on the short-form video app each day, while men of the same age spent 35 minutes less.
Overall, those over 65 were the UK’s least enthusiastic internet users, spending only three hours and ten minutes online each day.
However, women spent more time online than men no matter how old they are.
Gen Z spent more time online than any other generation, spending over six hours on smartphones, tablets, and computers each day. TikTok was one of the most popular internet services, with the average woman aged 16-25 spending more than an hour on the app each day
Previous studies have found that many young adults in the UK now struggle to go an hour without looking at their phone
Three-quarters of Brits’ time online is spent on smartphones, with the average person spending three hours and 15 minutes on their phone each day.
Tablets and computers each accounted for half an hour of the average internet user’s remaining screen time.
Additionally, the study found that there is a growing divide in the kinds of content and sites that men and women access online.
When it comes to the top 10 social media sites, women make up the majority of users for Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
On Pinterest in particular, 79 per cent of all time spent on the site was accounted for by female users.
On the other hand, men account for most of the time spent on Quora, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Men are also by far the most enthusiastic consumers of internet pornography in the UK, making up 73 per cent of the total adult audience.
In May 2024, 13.8 million UK adults accessed a pornographic content service with the average person spending one hour and 33 minutes per month.
Ofcom found that Pornhub continued to be the most popular pornographic content service, having been visited by 18 per cent of UK online adults.
Ofcom’s study found that people aged 18-25 were the most active internet users. Previous research has found that almost 100 per cent of young people now have a phone by the the time they turn 18
Men of all ages spent less time online but were much more active users of AI, online dating services, and pornography (stock photo)
An Ofcom spokesperson says: ‘Although women in general engage more heavily with the online world, they’re more likely than men to feel they have a good balance between their screen time and real-world activities.
‘But they’re also more sceptical about the internet’s personal and societal value, given they’re less likely than men to think that the benefits of the online world outweigh the risks and less likely to believe that the internet is a good thing for society.’
When it came to actual experience online, Ofcom found that women were more likely to receive unwelcome friend requests and to encounter misogynistic content.
Teenage girls in particular were more likely than boys to experience content promoting unhealthy exercise or eating habits and eating-disorder-related content.
An Ofcom spokesperson says: ‘It is not right that women and girls are targeted by online harassment, misogynistic abuse and disturbing threats.
‘They feel less confident about their online safety than men, and less able to have a voice online or to share opinions.
In February, Ofcom will publish detailed guidance on how it expects tech firms to take action to protect women and girls online.
The spokesperson added: ‘We want to see a concerted focus by the whole industry on making online life safer for women and girls.’
What is smartphone addiction?
Currently, smartphone addiction isn’t officially recognised by psychologists as a separate mental condition like depression or bipolar disorder.
However, the term has now become far more accepted as scientists warn of a worrying rise in cases.
Recent studies have suggested more than a quarter of the global population suffers from smartphone addiction while rates could be as high as 70 per cent in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.
Likewise, a survey from the Pew Research Center found that 95 per cent of UK teens said that they were online ‘almost constantly’.
However, several prominent researchers suggest that this could be stretching the term ‘addiction’ a little too far.
Professor Mark Griffiths, a leading expert on internet addiction from Nottingham Trent University, told MailOnline: ‘There’s a difference between problematic smartphone use and addictive smartphone use.’
Even if you spend hours on your phone each day and feel that you just can’t put your phone down, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are addicted.
Researchers say that smartphone addiction is becoming more common around the world. Scientists have found that China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia had the highest rates of smartphone use, they found, while Germany and France had the lowest
Previous studies have shown that problematic smartphone use has generally increased across the world. However, many people may have problematic use but not be fully addicted
Addiction, unlike problematic use, changes our behaviour at the neurological level and embeds deeply compulsive and dependent behaviours.
‘Most children would not ever fulfil my criteria of being addicted to a smartphone,’ says Professor Griffiths.
‘Even though a lot of them will experience problematic use which will quite clearly have detrimental effects on their life.’
Professor Griffiths adds: ‘If I’m assessing smartphone addiction I’m using the word addiction in exactly the same way I would apply it to heroin, alcohol, or any other drugs.’
Likewise, Dr Daria Kuss, a chartered psychologist and expert on addictive behaviour from Nottingham Trent University, told MailOnline: ‘Smartphone addiction is a psychological condition in which a user develops symptoms traditionally associated with substance dependence.’
