These days, young people are glued to their social media like never before. On an average school day, they're spending quite a bit more time chatting with friends online compared to back in 2009.

The pandemic hadclear impact on this. Although this time had been increasing since 2012 (when we saw the roll out of 4G, the emergence of 'phablets' and a tipping point in smartphone ownership), in 2020, there was a sudden surge of 28 extra minutes spent on social media. But guess what? More recent data is suggesting that young people might be spending less time chatting online again with average minutes back down to well under 2 hours. However this may be a shift in behaviour online rather than overall time online as Ofcom's 2025 Media Lives Report suggests young people are now mainly using social media to consume content rather than interact with peers.¹

There have been some intriguing gender differences in what young people actually do online. In Ofcom's Children's Media Lives 2023 report researchers identified that girls' most common online behaviour is posting supportive messages, spreading those positive vibes. On the other hand, boys are more into watching videos, and playing action and adventure or multiplayer games.²