study <\/a>from Universit\u00e9 Laval found that Quebecers active on social media now spend an average of 3 hours and 41 minutes a day online \u2014 that is 51 minutes more than a year ago.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve known that the younger generation, so 18 to 34, they\u2019ve been spending about four hours a day on social media,\u201d said Astrid Alemao, project manager of NETendances.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now what we\u2019re seeing is that older generations, so 34 and even 55 and older, they are spending much time. So that gap is really closing between generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest increase in screen time was among users 55 and older \u2014up 77 minutes\u2014 compared with an increase of 13 minutes for those aged 18 to 34.<\/p>\n
Universit\u00e9 Laval psychology & assistant professor Youssef Allami says that older people may be increasingly relying on devices to connect with family members or use it for entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the main elements that older folks were looking on these streaming services was also a way of catching up on news, a way of catching up on shows,\u201d Allami said.<\/p>\n
Facebook is still the go\u2011to platform for people over 25, but it\u2019s the short, vertical videos (reels) that are really changing habits.<\/p>\n
Users say they\u2019re spending about two more hours a day on TikTok and Instagram than on other apps. And across all age groups, almost half (48 per cent) admit they have a hard time putting their phones away\u00a0during downtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Montrealer Cassandra, who is in her 20s, says, \u201cI doom scroll. So, reels, TikTok, Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas also says the apps can be addictive and he would constantly be on the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy attention span was so garbage that I couldn\u2019t watch a show, I would watch TikTok,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI was like, this is pathetic. It\u2019s terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allami says content creators and apps are designed to keep users engaged longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re seeing videos that the algorithm knows you\u2019re going to be interested in. It\u2019s going to make you react, even if it\u2019s negatively, but you\u2019re going to react to those videos,\u201d Allami explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the platforms are built this way, the content creators, they are following those rules,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Corey, who is part of the 55+ age group, said, \u201cIf people of my age and up are spending that much more time on it, it\u2019s because they\u2019re missing something, and they think they\u2019re going to get it there, but they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Allami says spending more time on screen doesn\u2019t necessarily be it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you find that someone tends to develop problems such as emotional coping problems, social problems, having difficulty concentrating at work or school, well, that\u2019s when it actually starts to be considered a problem, and not just a question about time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebecers\u2019 screen time increased by almost an hour in just one year as gap between generations is closing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-508322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}