MANILA, Philippines — A recent study has shown that the Filipinos have the highest average screen time spent on phones, and rank consistently high for average screen times on computers, social media and gaming.
Electronics information website Electronics Hub conducted a study on the average screen times of nearly 50 countries using DataReportal’s Digital 2023: Global Overview Report released last January to find country-level data for screen time.
Electronics Hub also referred to sleep patterns data from Sleep Cycle to input the average sleep times of each country in order to calculate the awake hours percentage relative to screen time for a given device or platform.
The data showed that Filipinos spend nearly a third of their day (32.53%) on their phones, just narrowly edging Brazil at 32.46%; a Telenor survey showed that at 29%, the country has the highest digital dependence in all of Asia.
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Market data by Newzoo said the Philippines has almost 70 million smartphone users. China, meanwhile, has nearly a billion people, but its average screen time sits at 19.54%, though Electronics Hub noted that this may be because of the country's restrictions on some technology and social media platforms.
For average screen time on computers, the Philippines sits at eighth with 21.91%, the highest in Asia, behind the top-ranked 26.69% of South Africa.
South Africans also spend the most time on social media at 22.56%, followed by Brazil at 22.37% and the Philippines at 21.91%, meaning the three nations' residents spend over one-fifth of their day on social media platforms.
When it comes to gaming, Filipinos spend 8.75% of their time playing. The list was topped by Saudi Arabia at 11.47%, likely because of the country's $37.8 billion (P2.1 trillion) investment in game development according to NGN.
Overall, Filipinos have the third-highest average screen time in the world at 54.44%, again close behind South Africa and Brazil, respectively.
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