Nevertheless, the value is still well above the level of 2019. Before the corona pandemic, young people spent an average of 58 hours a week online. In 2022, girls spent an average of 67.2 hours on the internet, significantly more than boys with 60.3 hours. If game consoles are taken into account, the values increase to 73.5 and 66.5 online hours, respectively.
94 percent of girls use their smartphones, compared to 85 percent of boys. While girls surf the web for an average of 43.4 hours, boys use it for 30.9 hours. Boys, on the other hand, use the desktop PC for the Internet much more frequently. They also use game consoles a little more often.
Smartphones are the most popular – however, the average usage time has fallen since the peak value of 43.7 hours per week in 2021 to 36.9 hours now. Before the pandemic, it was 35.8 hours. Only the tablet was used for surfing about as often as in the previous study. The laptop was used 0.6 hours less.
During the pandemic, smartphones were an indispensable means of communication for many teenagers, explained Thomas Brosch from Postbank. “Now it’s partly being replaced by physical meetings again,” he added. Nevertheless, young people do not want to do without the many possibilities that the smartphone offers them.
