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Americans spend way less time interacting face-to-face, and it's costing us more than we knowplay icon
National

Americans spend way less time interacting face-to-face, and it's costing us more than we know

Stephanie Raymond
By Stephanie RaymondOct 23, 2024

Most of us would consider ourselves social people, but how often do you spend time interacting with others face-to-face?

Recent data shows Americans are spending less and less time socializing in person. While the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this trend, it's been ongoing for almost two decades.

According to a report by The Atlantic's Derek Thompson, the number of hours American adults spend interacting with others face-to-face has dropped 30% from 2003 to 2022. The decline was greater for unmarried Americans, more than 35%, and even bigger for teenagers, more than 45%.

Data from the Census Bureau's 2023 American Time Use Survey shows that Americans on average spend 34 minutes a day, roughly four hours a week visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events. A decade ago, that average was 43 minutes a day, about five hours a week. Twenty years ago, the average was 47 minutes a day, about five-and-a-half hours a week.

A study from early 2024 found 40% of adults will go for at least three days without a face-to-face conversation with another human being.

So, if we're not spending as much time in person with our friends anymore -- what are we doing?

Thompson told WBUR that screentime and cellphones are a major culprit of the socialization decline, noting that the percent of teens who said they went out with friends two or more times a week took a steep dip around 2012-2014.

"This is a 15-year-old trend, really, that we're looking at," he said. "If you think, 'What happened that changed the texture of teenage life 15 years ago?,' it's ridiculous to not think about screens."

But not everyone is so convinced. A 2022 study shows the uniform decline in face-to-face time began well before the rise of social media.

"The social displacement hypothesis is probably the most well-known, long-lasting explanation for where time spent using new technologies — from the internet to texting, and now social media — comes from," Jeffrey Hall, co-author of the study and professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, said in a statement. "The social displacement argument says that new media cuts into our face-to-face time. The best available evidence suggests it's just not so."

Instead, Hall said there's been "a transformation of where people are putting their attention." The study suggests that social media time is likely borrowing from time spent watching TV, at work or doing household chores, versus in-person interactions.

"The best available evidence suggests face-to-face is in competition with hours spent at work and commuting," Hall said, adding that people who work longer often spend more of their leisure time alone.

In any event, the decrease in face-to-face time may reflect growing rates of loneliness. According to a report from the United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, around half of all US adults have experienced loneliness, which carries the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

"In recent years, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, exacerbating loneliness and isolation," Murthy wrote in his report.

"[Loneliness] is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death," he added.

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