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Internet Users on Social Networks and Time Spent Alone · U.S.
Top: internet users aged fifteen and over who use online social networks, %. Bottom: hours per day spent alone, ages fifteen and over
Social networks from the NTIA Internet Use Survey (Census Bureau CPS supplement), about every two years. Time alone from the BLS American Time Use Survey, excluding sleep and personal care; no estimate for the pandemic year of the survey shutdown. The two panels have their own scales. Lines moving together do not show that one caused the other. Researchers disagree about what smartphones and social media do to young people's mental health: Jonathan Haidt argues they are a major cause of the rise in teen anxiety and depression; Candice Odgers and Amy Orben argue the evidence shows small or unclear effects.
Social networks reached most American internet users, and the hours Americans spend alone grew over the same years. The chart shows the two moving together; it does not show one causing the other.
What this chart reads
- Internet Users on Online Social Networks · U.S. (NTIA, 15+)as “On social networks”
- Time Spent Alone (ATUS, All Persons 15+)as “Hours alone”latest 2025-12-31
Sources
Internet Users on Online Social Networks · U.S. (NTIA, 15+). Source: NTIA Internet Use Survey Data Explorer (variable socialNetworkUser, universe adultInternetUser), ntia-analyze-table.csv at https://www.ntia.gov/data/explorer, from the Census Bureau Current Population Survey Computer and Internet Use Supplement. A U.S. Government work (17 U.S.C. §105). NTIA does not endorse any product or service. Refreshed monthly by ntia-sync; every edition is rewritten so revisions land.
Time Spent Alone (ATUS, All Persons 15+). Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey (series TUU10101AA01066731). Annual, public domain.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.