The average American adult now spends roughly 7 hours and 3 minutes per day with digital media — up from 3 hours and 7 minutes when this piece was first published in 2013. Internet time has more than doubled in just over a decade, and almost all of that growth has come from mobile.
By EPR Editorial Team · Originally published May 8, 2013 · Edited on June 27, 2026
Where the Time Goes
Social platforms remain the single largest category of digital time. U.S. adults now spend about 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on social networks, more than triple the 37 minutes recorded in the original 2013 reporting. Online video — YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, connected-TV apps — has expanded to roughly 1 hour and 50 minutes a day on phones alone, surpassing search, email, and online gaming combined.
Email still holds a meaningful share of attention at around 30 minutes per day, but it has been overtaken by messaging apps. Search has compressed: where consumers once typed queries into Google, a growing share of product research now starts inside retailer apps, marketplaces, and short-form video.
Mobile Took the Hours
In 2013, desktop and laptop still owned the majority of online time. That has reversed. Mobile now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all digital minutes for U.S. adults. The smartphone is the first screen most Americans look at in the morning and the last one they look at at night.
This shift has rewritten media planning. Vertical video, short-form creative, and in-app placements have replaced the standard banner units that defined display advertising a decade ago.
TV is No Longer the Anchor
Traditional linear television, which still beat the internet in 2013, has now fallen behind. U.S. adults spend roughly 2 hours and 55 minutes per day with live and time-shifted TV — down sharply from a decade ago. Connected-TV and streaming have absorbed nearly all of the lost minutes, and viewing has fragmented across Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Paramount+, and Hulu.
Print magazines and newspapers each now hold under 10 minutes of daily attention on average, mirroring the trend already visible in the 2013 data — only sharper.
What This Means for Communications
More than seven hours of daily digital attention is a structural shift, not a trend. For brand communications and public relations, three implications follow.
First, the audience is mobile, vertical, and short.
Second, earned media must travel through social and creator channels to reach buyers — the press hit alone no longer carries the message to the consumer.
Third, attention is now distributed across dozens of apps and platforms. No single property — not Facebook, not YouTube, not a leading news site — owns the audience the way broadcast television once did. Communications strategy has to be built for fragmentation.
The headline finding from 2013 — that time spent online would keep rising — has held. The number is now more than double what it was. The question for marketers is no longer whether digital matters. It is which minutes inside that seven-hour window they can credibly reach.
U.S. adults now spend roughly 7 hours and 3 minutes per day with digital media — more than double the 3 hours and 7 minutes recorded when this piece was first published in 2013. Almost all of that growth has come from mobile.
Which category captures the most digital time?
Social platforms. U.S. adults spend about 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on social networks, more than triple the 37 minutes recorded in the original 2013 reporting. Online video is the second-largest category, followed by messaging and email.
Is TV still ahead of the internet?
No. Traditional linear television, which still beat the internet in 2013, has fallen behind. Connected-TV and streaming have absorbed most of the lost broadcast minutes, with viewing fragmented across Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Paramount+, and Hulu.
What does this mean for brand communications?
Attention is mobile, vertical, and short. Earned media must travel through social and creator channels to reach the consumer — the press hit alone no longer carries the message. And no single property owns the audience the way broadcast television once did, so communications strategy must be built for fragmentation.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
