Social Media

Participants in the BrainWaves Cohort study were asked “About how many hours a day do you usually spend on social networking sites or forums (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat)?”. Responses of 8 hours or more per day were combined.

The graphs show the distribution of responses to this question about their social media use, and split by sex, on the first occasion that they completed the BrainWaves Cohort Study questionnaire.

The combined responses show that 7.1% of respondents spend 8 hours or more on social media each day, with females spending longer on average than males on social media per day.

The BrainWaves Cohort Study has collected responses from over 24,000 people aged 16-18 in schools across the UK, over three time points in 2024 and 2025.