Most addicted social media users in Africa : Nigerians rank first, trailed by South Africans, Ghanaians

Globally, social media usage has plateaued, according to the Global Web Index’s flagship report on the latest trends in social media.

The report, which provides the most important insights on the world of social media, found that since Q2 2021, time spent on social media has increased in 32 of the 47 countries, with consumers in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) upping their usage by around 20 minutes in the space of a few months.

According to the report, time spent on social media has been a bit of a rollercoaster over the last five years. “Between 2014- 2018, the average time spent on networks was making steady strides forward, increasing by almost 40 minutes.

The numbers then started to plateau in 2019, only to be interrupted by the pandemic. Q2 2020, when around half the world’s population was under some form of lockdown.

Back then, the long-term impact of this uptick wasn’t clear; but it is now. Engagement has fluctuated a little, but ultimately levelled off. If we take MEA out of the equation, the global average is what it was three years ago,” the report noted,

The African country most obsessed with social media is Nigeria. On average, they spend a shocking 3 hours and 42 minutes on social networks every day. In second place is South Africa, where users spend on average 3 hours and 37 minutes scrolling through their favourite social media sites.

Other Ranking Countries:

• Kenya – 3 hours and 08 minutes
• Egypt – 2 hours and 57 minutes
• Morocco – 2 hours and 31 minutes.

The report also noted that WhatsApp is the most popular social network in Africa, while Facebook remains the world’s most popular social network despite reports of Facebook deleters growing in ranks.

The report concludes that as vaccines give more people the confidence to venture outdoors, competition for their spare time is bound to intensify. New Year’s resolutions offered clues into upcoming trends, and compared to 2020, this year’s participants are more likely to have settled on travelling more (+24%) and spending less time on social media (+9%).

“For now, social platforms are maintaining the hold they have on users’ time, but an attention recession could see action-based metrics gain even more relevance, and others like views to become less dependable; these could simply be a reflection of consumers spending less time scrolling, and not the true effectiveness of a brand’s campaign or social strategy,” the report stated.