People’s growing obsession with mobile phones and social media is stopping them seeing friends, a study warned today.
The amount of time spent socialising has dropped by nearly 13 per cent over the past 15 years to an average of just six hours.
Meanwhile, use of devices has soared, taking up more than a third of young men’s leisure hours, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The findings will raise fresh concerns about swift cultural changes breaking down previous social bonds.
Using devices takes up more than a third of young men’s leisure hours, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Women have a total of 38 hours per week of leisure time, with the figure for men higher at 43 hours.
Men aged up to 25 were the most intensive users of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and laptops, with 35 per cent of their time spent that way.
The equivalent figure for women was 29 per cent.
Activities like sports and cultural pursuits have become less frequent since 2000.
The ONS highlighted figures showing that in 2015 people spent an average of around six hours per week socialising – a fall of 12.7 per cent over the past 15 years.
The report said: ‘Comparatively, mass media consumption, for example, reading, listening to music or watching television, accounts for around half of all leisure time taken.
‘People may be using mobile phones to socialise when they’re watching television, but it’s not necessarily face-to-face communication.
‘It’s possible that with increased device use, people are becoming less likely to go out of their way to meet up and socialise. Easy internet access enables people to talk to friends via social media apps, but they’re still doing so alone.
‘The data show that, of all leisure time spent using a device, 46 per cent of this time is spent alone compared with 29 per cent without a device.’
The amount of time spent socialising has fallen sharply amid the rise in use of devices, according to the ONS