Time spent on social media
How much time do U.S. teens report spending?
A useful estimate starts with who was asked, which platforms were counted and how time was measured.
was Gallup's reported average across seven tested social-media platforms among U.S. teenagers aged 13–19 in its 2023 survey.
United States · Ages 13–19 · June 26–July 17, 2023 fieldwork · Typical-day reported time
Source: Gallup, Teens Spend Average of 4.8 Hours on Social Media Per Day, published 2023-10-13. The selected platforms exclude Snapchat. This is a source-reported aggregate, not a SocialUsage sum or a measurement of today's use.
What those hours mean
Participants reported a category for typical-day time on platforms they had used in the past year. The source converted those categories into an estimated amount of time and reported the combined mean. It did not passively track every minute on each device.
Use the figure as an estimate from this particular teen survey. Self-reporting and category conversion introduce measurement uncertainty. The checked report does not establish whether simultaneous use was deduplicated, so this should not be treated as exact elapsed screen time. A mean also does not tell us what each individual reported.
Source: IFS/Gallup original report, pages 7–9. The original contains the source's figure and full analysis.
Keep the scope with the claim
Who is included—and who is not?
Teenagers aged 13–19 in the United States. The age range includes 18- and 19-year-olds; it differs from surveys of ages 13–17 and school-based surveys of grades 9–12. It does not establish an average for all adults or every country.
The platform set is selected and excludes Snapchat. It is not an exhaustive account of every social-media service.
How precise is the estimate?
The supporting report's Figure 2, page 8, gives an analytic sample of 1,567 and a standard error of 0.10 hours for the reported mean. Figure 2 reports a standard error of 0.10 hours. A confidence interval for this mean is not printed there; none is invented here.
The source article describes a broader teen survey sample; this page uses the analytic sample printed with the actual time estimate. Sampling uncertainty does not include every kind of reporting or measurement error.
Check the original figure and its notesWhat exactly was asked?
The report describes asking about use of seven platforms in the past year, then typical-day time for platforms used. Exact verbatim time-question wording was not located in the checked public article or report.
Gallup Panel survey of teenagers reached through participating parents. The report describes weighting, category-midpoint conversion and grouping the upper time category; this is survey-reported time, not a passive device log.
Can “almost every day” be converted into hours?
No. Frequency describes how often an activity occurs; duration describes time spent. Checking social media hourly does not mean spending an hour on it. Our high-school frequency page keeps that distinction explicit.
Is this a current-year estimate or a growth trend?
No. These answers were collected in summer 2023. Reviewing the source in 2026 does not update that period. This single survey does not establish a comparable time series, a current U.S. adult average or a causal effect.
A citation that preserves the meaning
In your writing, keep “U.S. teenagers aged 13–19,” “seven tested platforms,” “reported average” and “2023” with the number. If your question concerns all adults or device-measured elapsed time, this is not the same measure.
Limited attributed factual citation in original prose, following Gallup's citation guidance. No open commercial redistribution licence is asserted. Reports, charts and tables remain copyrighted; reproductions require the applicable permission. Do not build a continuing Gallup ingestion or mirror. Gallup's citation and permissions guidance. No dataset or chart export is offered for this editorial finding.
Evidence and review dates
- Survey fieldwork
- 26 June–17 July 2023 fieldwork
- Original publication
- 2023-10-13; supporting report 2023-10-11
- Retrieved / evidence checked
- 2026-10-01 / 2026-10-01
Assisted source verification; no independent human editorial approval is claimed.