{"id":768407,"date":"2024-04-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=768407"},"modified":"2024-04-22T15:26:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T13:26:39","slug":"south-africans-have-the-worst-screen-time-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/768407\/south-africans-have-the-worst-screen-time-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans have the worst screen time in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are addicted to their screens, with the highest percentage of their day spent on their phones worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a study by the tech website Electronics Hub<\/a>, South Africans spend 56.8% of their awake hours a day looking at screens, at 9 hours and 24 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study uses data from DataReportal (2024) and Sleep Cycle, with Electronics Hub ranking countries based on different types of screen time across various devices and media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re a planet addicted to our screens,” said Electronics Hub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s not a new problem\u2014worrying about how much television time we clock up has been around since the 1950s\u2014but with so many screens, binge-able shows, and addictive apps jostling for our attention, it\u2019s no wonder that nearly one in two people in the US say they have an addiction to their digital devices.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many, screen time is now an unavoidable part of their working day, while for others, it’s something close to an emotional crutch for the end of the workday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, South Africans spend 11 minutes more on average looking at their screens than second-placed Brazil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many emerging economies are notably high in the rankings, with the Philippines (52.28% of their awake hours), Colombia (51.43%), and Argentina (51.81%) completing the top 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan has the least screen time, at 22.76% of their awake hours. <\/p>\n\n\n

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South Africans, in particular, spent a higher percentage (31.72%) of their day looking at their phones, with an average screen time of 5 hours and 15 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil, again, comes in second, with 31.57% of their wake hours on their phones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phone-specific screen time is often higher in poorer, emerging markets, where mobile phones, and not personal computers, are the primary and most affordable way to access the internet. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Despite not leading the rankings, South Africans also spend much of their day watching TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans spend 4 hours and 5 minutes watching TV a day (24.67%)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This only trails the USA, where the average daily screen time is 4 hours and 39 minutes (28.35%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil comes in third (24.15%), followed by the UK (24.04%) and Chile (22.30%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to television, the US leads \u2014 the average American watches TV for 28.35%
of their waking day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding computers, people in Russia spend the most time of any country on their computers (27.07%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa again comes in second, with the daily average screen time working out to four hours and 5 minutes, working out 25.08% of one’s day. <\/p>\n\n\n

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One area where South Africa does not feature high on the rankings is gaming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia is at the top of the list, with a daily average screen time of 1 hour and 43 minutes (10.02%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand (9.99%) and the USA (8.03%) follow complete the top three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa, on the other hand, comes in 16th, with an average daily screen time of 57 minutes (5.74% of one’s awake hours.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although affordable mobile phones and accessible internet have made screen time a dominant part of daily life worldwide, gaming is still quite cost-prohibitive and is far more prevalent in richer countries. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Read<\/strong>: \u2018Sad picture\u2019 for South Africa\u2019s economy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new global study shows that South Africa spent the most time of their day looking at screens, with phones being a major issue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":768429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[26,28],"class_list":["post-768407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-headline","tag-mtn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768407"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768962,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768407\/revisions\/768962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}