Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends Report is an avalanche of data providing insight into how every corner of the tech industry is growing and evolving. We already recapped its biggest themes, but there's a whole lot more to unpack.
For this edition of The Why Axis, we're focusing on breaking down one slide in particular: how much time the average internet user spends staring at a screen each day. According to KPCB's report, which aggregates data from market research company eMarketer, the average adult user in 2017 spent 5.9 hours with digital media. This includes smartphones, desktops and laptops, and other connected devices including over-the-top (OTT) streaming devices and game consoles.
There's a wealth of data to analyze here, but the most telling trend is of course that mobile usage has skyrocketed in the past decade. While desktop/laptop usage has remained mostly consistent, average mobile usage (which includes both smartphones and tablets) has increased from 0.3 hours per day in 2008 to 3.3 hours a day in 2017. There are myriad reasons for the precipitous jump, from the explosion of social media to year after year of usability improvements that have turned mobile devices into frictionless, intuitive extensions of ourselves.
The graph includes data from home and work usage for consumers age 18 and older, defined as time spent with each digital medium individually regardless of multitasking. So if a user was scrolling social media on their smartphone while watching Netflix on a streaming device, those usage times are counted separately.
The percentage of usage from other connected devices has risen incrementally as well, from 0.2 hours in 2008 to 0.6 hours in 2017. As more consumers cut the cord and view content through OTT streaming devices, this figure will only rise. We wouldn't be surprised if Meeker breaks that out into its own category in future reports.
Tech and social media giants are only now beginning to reckon with how well their products do exactly what they were designed to do: keep us tapping and scrolling for hours on end, pulling us back in with notification after notification. Apple recently announced an app called Screen Time and new tools in iOS 12 to set app time limits, monitor usage, and keep users from checking notifications at bedtime. Google announced similar controls for Android P at Google I/O, including an app timer, winddown feature, and usage dashboard as part of its Digital Wellbeing initiative.
We've reached the point as a society where there's less argument about whether tech addiction is real; whether we're spending too much time on digital devices. The conversation has shifted to what all of us—tech companies, parents keeping their childrens' tech use in check, and each user individually—should do about it. For proactive steps you can take, check out our tips on how to wean yourself off smartphones and social media.