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Here's How Many Years Of Your Life You'll Spend On Social Media

Here's How Many Years Of Your Life You'll Spend On Social Media

That's a lot of scrolling.

Anonymous

Anonymous

What did people do before social media? I should know the answer to this, because I didn't really grow up with it, and yet...nope, still can't imagine life without it. How strange would it be meeting someone new and not being able to pull up their full history within seconds?

As much as people (and I'm talking about my mum, here) tell me that social media is making us more antisocial and contributing to us communicating less. I think that, actually, I'm speaking to my friends more than ever. Friends who moved overseas, friends who moved back home after university, friends who had kids and don't get out as much as they used to; I know I wouldn't be able to maintain friendships, like the ones I have, if it wasn't for social media.

I'm not saying this is a substitute for going out there and spending time with friends but, in a world of 4G rather than GPRS and 20GB data deals instead of 100MB (cheers, Vodafone), using the net on your phone can actually open up social experiences - ya know, streaming football on the bus, or using Spotify in the park when it's nice out. Or whatever you prefer to do with your time.

So, OK, you get it. I'm a fan of social media, and I'm guessing you quite like it, too. But have you ever thought about how much time we spend on there? Well, hold on to your hats, because I have some stats for you.

The average user will spend...wait for it...you ready? A whopping five years and four months of their lives on social media.

Are you now thinking 'whoah, that's a lot; just think what else I could be doing in that time'? Well, you could watch every series of The Simpsons (to date) 215 times - a valuable use of time, to be honest. Or you could run over 10,000 marathons - I'll pass on that one.

You could fly to the moon 32 times, but that's probably quite expensive and it will have fewer cat videos.

If you fact-lovers are wondering how that all breaks down, then let me tell you.

YouTube is the main one. It eats up 40 minutes a day or one year and 10 months of our lives. I think we all know how that goes, you search for one video to help you learn how to bleed a radiator and the next minute you're watching a documentary about secret bunkers on Mars with no idea how you ended up there.

Not far behind is Facebook, which sees the average user spending 35 minutes a day (one year and seven months across a lifetime), that seems a bit low for me. But maybe I've got some sort of addiction.

We spend 25 minutes on SnapChat a day - one year, two months picking the best filter sounds like a lot, when you put it like that, doesn't it?

You'll be spending around 15 minutes a day looking at people's lunches on Instagram, or eight months of your life, which adds up to a lot of poorly made pasta and dodgy looking roast dinners.

Comparing this to other activities we might engage in, social media use more than holds its own; makes me wonder, what did our parents do with all that extra time?

It still hasn't beaten watching TV (yet), you will spend, on average, seven years and eight months doing that, by the way.

But we'll spend more time on social media than we will eating (three years and five months) and, sort of gross, but it also eclipses personal grooming - the average person spends just one year and 10 months on that.

Apparently, we'll also spend longer on social media than IRL socialising, which takes up, on average, a year and three months of our time. But I reckon whoever did that study didn't get out much - so maybe add a few more years and months onto that for most of us.

Either way, despite some of these staggering numbers, I think we can all agree that social media defines us, rather than restricts us. It's a place to make friends, rather than lose friends - but, more importantly, it's a place to laugh at memes.

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