Jun 22 | By Brandon Jarman
Before the days of being glued to your phone, people were glued to computer screens. College students raced home to log into Facebook before it became a thing grandparents and aunts and uncles also used, smitten teenagers professed their love via AOL chat rooms, and people refreshed their email inboxes as often as they now check their phones.
Although smartphones have made being online on-the-go more accessible, computers are still superior when it comes to surfing the web, streaming TV shows or movies, and uploading files. And part of that superiority is the power of fast upload and download speeds. Thanks to computers’ ability to handle large upload and downloads, wider screens, and powerful software capabilities, they have the distinct advantage over smartphones for activities such as working from home and surfing the web.
From gaming on PCs to streaming on laptops, check below to find out which states’ residents spend the most time behind their computer screens.
We at VerizonSpecials.com put our heads together to answer the question: what is the average screen time in each state? What are the stats on your hometown’s computer usage? Does your state prefer to stream a show or go offline?
Read on to see your state’s average screen time.
Interesting Findings
- You’d think Hawaii would be the most unplugged of any state (hello, sandy white beaches), but they had the highest amount of screen time by a landslide—two hours and forty-one minutes per day, to be exact.
- Alaska and Utah have the highest percentage of households with access to at least one computer device: 96%.
- On the other side of the scale, Mississippi has the lowest percentage of households with at least one computing device (86%)—yet the Magnolia State still ranks #2 in overall screen time.
- California, New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii all have one thing in common: they’re the only states who search YouTube more than Facebook.
- Alaska, Utah, Colorado, and Washington—states that ranked the lowest for overall screen time—each have their fair share of national parks. Between the four states, there are twenty parks to keep people busy outdoors and away from their screens.
Top 10 States That Spend the Most Time on Their Computers
The Top 10 States that Spend the Least Time on a Computer
Here’s How Much Screen Time Your State Gets
| Ranking | State | Amount of screen time per day | Most-searched social media platform | Percentage of households with at least one computing device |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 2:41 | YouTube | 92% |
| 2 | Mississippi | 2:04 | 86% | |
| 3 | Florida | 1:55 | 93% | |
| 3 | Louisiana | 1:55 | 87% | |
| 5 | Arkansas | 1:51 | 89% | |
| 6 | Tennessee | 1:49 | 89% | |
| 7 | Maryland | 1:47 | 93% | |
| 8 | Missouri | 1:43 | 91% | |
| 9 | Alabama | 1:43 | 87% | |
| 10 | Connecticut | 1:39 | 92% | |
| 11 | Maine | 1:39 | 90% | |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 1:37 | 90% | |
| 13 | Nevada | 1:36 | 94% | |
| 13 | New Mexico | 1:36 | 88% | |
| 15 | Iowa | 1:34 | 91% | |
| 16 | West Virginia | 1:33 | 86% | |
| 17 | Texas | 1:33 | 92% | |
| 18 | North Carolina | 1:32 | 91% | |
| 19 | Arizona | 1:30 | 93% | |
| 19 | California | 1:30 | YouTube | 94% |
| 19 | Kansas | 1:30 | 92% | |
| 19 | New York | 1:30 | YouTube | 91% |
| 19 | Oklahoma | 1:30 | 91% | |
| 24 | Georgia | 1:30 | 92% | |
| 25 | Idaho | 1:27 | 94% | |
| 25 | New Hampshire | 1:27 | 94% | |
| 25 | Ohio | 1:27 | 91% | |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 1:27 | 90% | |
| 29 | Illinois | 1:25 | 91% | |
| 30 | Nebraska | 1:25 | 92% | |
| 30 | New Jersey | 1:25 | YouTube | 93% |
| 32 | Michigan | 1:24 | 91% | |
| 33 | Virginia | 1:24 | 92% | |
| 34 | Minnesota | 1:23 | 93% | |
| 35 | South Carolina | 1:21 | 90% | |
| 36 | Oregon | 1:19 | 94% | |
| 37 | Montana | 1:16 | 90% | |
| 38 | Indiana | 1:14 | 91% | |
| 38 | Utah | 1:14 | 96% | |
| 40 | Kentucky | 1:13 | 89% | |
| 40 | Massachusetts | 1:13 | 93% | |
| 40 | Washington | 1:13 | 95% | |
| 43 | Colorado | 1:12 | 94% | |
| 44 | North Dakota | 1:11 | 90% | |
| 45 | Alaska | 0:57 | 96% | |
| 46 | Vermont | 0:45 | 92% | |
| 47 | Delaware | 0:40 | 93% | |
| 47 | South Dakota | 0:40 | 90% |
Click here to view our 2019 report.
Methodology
To find the average amount of time (in hours) that each state spends on the computer (e.g., social media, downloading files, browsing the web, etc.) we analyzed data from the 2014–2018 American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Our rankings do not account for gaming, computer use for work, online banking, or online shopping.
District of Columbia, Rhode Island, and Wyoming do not meet the ATUS standard for quality and reliability, so they weren’t included in our rankings.
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