Today we launched Digital 2022: In The US, part of our series of annual global digital reports (check out our global report, Digital 2022, if you haven’t seen it already). It’s a comprehensive report covering digital, social and mobile use in the US.

The number of internet users in America has crossed the 300 million mark for the first time, with 8.4 million more people now online than at the same point in 2021

There are now 307 million internet users in the US, meaning 92% of the population is digitally connected. The number of active social media users also increased, up by 12.5% in 2021 to 270.1 million.

Facebook is by far the most popular social network, with three in four US internet users aged 16-64 logging on at least once a month, and its Messenger service comes in at second. They are followed in popularity by Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

A look at the time spent on social media apps on Android shows that TikTok’s users devote over one day per month on average to the platform, with the figure rising 19% year over year to 25.6 hours a month. This is over three hours more than the average time spent on the YouTube Android app, which fell 4% to 22.2 hours a month.

The integration of social media into everyday life continues apace – and when questioned about where they found brand and product recommendations, 26.7% of American internet users said social media ads, the fifth most cited source, and only just beaten in popularity by search engines, at 31.2%.

While time spent on the internet fell 6 minutes to an average of 7 hours and 5 minutes daily, there was a rise in social use of 5.5%, bringing the figure up to 2 hours 14 minutes a day, 13 minutes less than the global average.

Other significant changes in content consumption include an 18.4% rise in podcast listening to an average of 58 minutes daily, and 16% more time spent using games consoles, for an average of 1 hour and 27 minutes., 

Interest in crypto finance is ahead of the global average, with 12.7% of American internet users saying they own some kind of cryptocurrency, compared to 10.2% internationally.

Our CEO, Benjamin Arnold, commented on the report’s findings:

“Social media usage during the pandemic increased significantly, and it was interesting to see that the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions did not have a reverse-effect on that growth. While the fortunes of the individual social platforms might ebb and flow, social media continues to push our culture forward and become more embedded in our daily lives.” 

Want to learn more about how this data will impact your brand? Get in touch: [email protected]