This use amounts to 4.8 hours per day for the average U.S. teen across seven social media platforms tested in the survey.

Across age groups, the average time spent on social media ranges from as low as 4.1 hours per day for 13-year-olds to as high as 5.8 hours per day for 17-year-olds. Girls spend nearly an hour more on social media than boys (5.3 vs. 4.4 hours, respectively).

These data are from the Familial and Adolescent Health Survey conducted by Gallup June 26-July 17, 2023, using the Gallup Panel. The survey collected data from 6,643 parents and 1,591 adolescents who were the children of those parents. The survey asked about parental and child wellbeing, parenting practices, youth mental health, youth activities, quality of parent-child relationships, and other topics. The data were collected amid growing concerns from academic scholars that social media use is habit-forming, leads to overconsumption and may contribute to mental health problems. A recent report published by Gallup and the Institute for Family Studies contributes to this discussion.

YouTube, TikTok Top the List of Favorite Social Media Apps

The results show that YouTube and TikTok are by far the most popular social media apps among teens. Teens report spending an average of 1.9 hours per day on YouTube and 1.5 hours per day on TikTok, with boys spending more time on YouTube and girls spending more time on TikTok. Instagram is also popular with teens, attracting 0.9 hours of use per day.

Further analysis of the findings shows that the personality traits and parenting experiences of adolescents are associated with their level of social media use.

Adolescents were asked measures of what psychologists call the "Big 5 personality traits." One of the scales that is particularly relevant, conscientiousness, pertains to self-control and self-regulation. The least conscientious adolescents -- those scoring in the bottom quartile on the four items in the survey -- spend an average of 1.2 hours more on social media per day than those who are highly conscientious (in the top quartile of the scale).