It was revealed last week, in a study by the University of Pennsylvania, that the increasing usage of social media is connected to the rising cases of depression and loneliness in users. The researchers, as reported by Digital Journal, examined participants against seven potential outcome measures, such as fear of missing out, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Perhaps the is more to life than social media?
Certainly a considerable time is spent gazing a social media feeds. New research from PlayUSA has looked at the top “time wasters”, from a review of the U.S. population, and found that the typical person spends 1470.6 hours a year watching television, which is the equivalent of over 61 days.
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Other popular uses of free time are: 2041 listening to music, just under 87 on video games, and 382 on social media. If the typical person indulges in these, plus the watching of television, this means there’s a total of 3981 hours’ or 166 days’ worth of time that could be diverted to other pursuits.
In terms of social media, the states engaging in the most social media use are Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. In terms of watching Netflix, the top two states are New Hampshire and Connecticut. For gaming, Tennessee is ahead by a distance.
As to what else could be done with a reduction in screen gazing time, PlayUSA suggest pursuits like learning a language; learning to code, or outdoor activities.
