Mobile phone users see a mix of benefits and pitfalls related to their devices, and Facebook and WhatsApp are among the most widely used digital platforms.
Facebook and WhatsApp are the most widely used social media platforms and messaging applications in 11 countries around the world.
Access to mobile phones and social media is common across emerging economies. People around the world see certain benefits from these technologies, yet there are also concerns about their impact on children.
Whether in advanced or emerging economies, younger people, those with higher levels of education and those with higher incomes are more likely to be digitally connected.
This sortable table provides data for levels of internet use, cellphone ownership, smartphone ownership and social media usage from 2013 to 2017 by country, highlighting the countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa.
Most in the region feel positively about the role the internet plays in their countries, but long-standing digital divides between internet haves and have-nots persist.
The use of digital technology has had a long stretch of rapid growth in the United States, but the share of Americans who go online, use social media or own key devices has remained stable the past two years.
Roughly half of U.S. teens say they spend too much time on their cellphones, and two-thirds of parents express concern over their teen’s screen time. But parents face their own challenges of device-related distraction.
Roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults often get news on a mobile device, 19 percentage points higher than the 39% who often get news on a desktop or laptop computer.
This sortable table provides data for levels of internet use, smartphone ownership and social media usage from 2013 to 2017 by country.
