It can be hard to accurately estimate how much time we spend online, though Atlas VPN notes that for many of us, it's a "significant portion of our day." Using data on internet usage trends among internet users 16 to 64 years old, the VPN service found the average time spent online last year was 397 minutes daily, or six hours and 37 minutes.
The firm also wanted to see which nations logged the most time doomscrolling or otherwise browsing the internet each day, and South Africa emerged the "winner," logging 578 minutes, or 9 hours and 38 minutes. The United States didn't crack the top 10, coming in at No. 20, with the average American spending 419 minutes per day staring at the screen; that's just under seven hours. Here, the other countries that ascended to the top of the list:
- South Africa; 578 minutes
- Brazil; 572 minutes
- Philippines; 554 minutes
- Argentina; 541 minutes
- Colombia; 541 minutes
- Chile; 516 minutes
- Mexico; 487 minutes
- Malaysia; 486 minutes
- Thailand; 486 minutes
- Russia; 477 minutes
(See how other nations fared
here.)