How much time should be spent on social media?

The use of social media has growing rapidly throughout the world. Technological advancements has made it possible for people to join networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc to interact with friends, family, and strangers.

For most people – journalists, doctors, lawyers, politicians etc, the social media is a part of their daily routine. This is because we all need to keep abreast with current events and situations around the world.

For others such as students and researchers, the social media also provides loads of information. But then, there has been an upsurge in the amount of time spent on these sites, especially Facebook. This leads to a pertinent question: “How much time should be spent on the social media”?

LifeXtra spoke to some people and the responses were quite interesting.

Abduljalil Umar, from Niger State, said “That cannot necessarily be fixed. It would depend on how free one is and one’s addiction to social media. Again, the benefits one derives from spending specified time on social is another determinant. There are persons who make money from social media legitimately.”

Janet Okeke, a youth corps member, added “Personally I think one shouldn’t exceed two hours per day on social media unless your work is dependent on it. It is important to add that these two hours should include when you are on transit or waiting for something.”

However, some respondents on the online fora – Quora, responded differently.  One of them, Chander Kanta Gariyali, said “I spend about one hour on social media which includes Facebook and WhatsApp. I try to do it at one go so that I do not interrupt what I have to do through the day. I normally look at the posts and messages in the night and answer what needs to be replied. If I am travelling and waiting on airports or railway stations, I spend more time on social media as well as on catching up with answering the pending E-mails.”

In an article titled “How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media” on Social Media Today, Evan Assano stated “The amount of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30 per cent of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction. And the majority of that time is on mobile – 60 per cent of social media time spent is facilitated by a mobile device.”