Young people surf the Internet 63.7 hours per week
28.06.2023 12:21
Young people between the ages of 16 and 18 in Germany spend almost 64 hours a week on the Internet. Compared to the previous year – when it was 67.8 hours – internet usage fell again. However, it is still well above the pre-pandemic level: in 2019, 16 to 18 year olds spent 58 hours online, almost six hours less than this year.
If smart TVs and games consoles are also included in the calculation, teenagers in Germany spend around 70 hours of online time per week. This emerges from Postbank's representative youth digital study.
Overall, girls spend more time on the Internet than boys - especially on their smartphones. In comparison, young males use desktop PCs more often. Female teenagers surf the Internet for 67.2 hours per week. This means they spend more time online than their male peers, who spend 60.3 hours per week on the Internet. If smart TVs and games consoles are also taken into account, this time increases to 73.5 and 66.5 online hours in seven days, respectively.
Girls surf intensively on their smartphones – boys surf on their desktop PCs
94 percent of girls concentrate on their smartphones during their online time, compared to 85 percent of boys. 58 percent of females, but only 46 percent of males, surf on their tablets. Laptops are more popular among girls than boys. The intensity of use of these devices is also higher among female teenagers: they use their smartphones 43.4 hours per week, while boys use them 30.9 hours. They surfed for 13.9 hours on their tablet, compared to 9.4 hours for their male peers. At 48 percent, boys use desktop PCs significantly more often than girls (20 percent). Game consoles (29 percent) and so-called wearables (13 percent) are also used slightly more by male teenagers to access the Internet. Here too, the intensity reflects the preferences: boys surf the PC for 8.9 hours within seven days, girls only 1.6 hours.
Usage time decreases for all devices – except for the tablet
The smartphone is the most popular device for internet use, not only among female teenagers, but also across genders. In total, 16 to 18 year olds surf 36.9 hours per week. Only then do tablets, laptops and desktop PCs follow far behind. The average duration of smartphone usage per week has continued to decline since the peak of 43.7 hours per week recorded in 2021. In 2022, usage fell by almost five hours to 39 hours per week, and this year surfing on mobile phones fell again by more than two hours. However, the usage time is even longer than before Corona: in 2019 it was 35.8 hours.
“The smartphone was an indispensable means of communication for many teenagers during the Corona crisis. Now it is partly being replaced by physical meetings again,” says Thomas Brosch, Head of Digital Sales at Postbank. “But even after Corona, young people don’t want to miss out on the many options that smartphones offer them: With the small and light multitool, they can access social media, shopping apps or their banking from anywhere. The young people don’t want to miss that anymore.”
The tablet was the only device used for Internet access at about the same rate as in the previous year - young people currently use a tablet for 11.6 hours per week. Last year it was 11.5 hours. Teenagers surf the internet on a laptop for 5.6 hours per week, a decrease of 0.6 hours compared to the previous year.