SURVEY: More Than Half of Irish Women Spend up to Four Hours a Day Online

Irish women are Internet obsessed. A recent survey carried out with over 9,000 respondents found that 54 per cent of us spend between two and four hours every day online. While 28 per cent spend less than two hours engaged in the World Wide Web, an ultra-connected 18 per cent spend more than six hours a day online. When it comes to what we’re doing online, it seems the rumours of Facebook’s demise is greatly exaggerated. A huge 98 per cent of those surveyed are active on the social network. Whatsapp proved one of the most popular tools for staying in touch with friends, with 59 per cent of respondents saying they are active on the messaging service. Both Instagram and Snapchat proved more popular with Irish women than Twitter. Instagram attracted 54 per cent of women, while newer-kid-on-the-block Snapchat was popular with 52 per cent of those surveyed. Twitter attracted slightly smaller numbers, with 47 per cent, while Pinterest trailed with 35 per cent. Snapchat’s increasing popularity was further referenced when women were asked about the most recent app they had downloaded, proving to be the most popular choice across the board. It seems we find it difficult to disengage from the web for too long at any given time, with most women (33 per cent) admitting to checking their social media accounts every two to three hours. A further 23 per cent said they checked their accounts multiple times per hour, and 18 per cent once an hour. Despite our fondness for living online, we’re still a little slow to embrace online dating, with only 26 per cent of women saying they have tried to meet a partner online. The survey was carried out by Maximum Media, parent company of Her.ie, JOE.ie, HerFamily.ie and SportsJOE.ie. The research, titled “A Slice of Ireland”, collected the views of over 20,000 readers across all four sites. Further research from A Slice of Ireland will be published on Her.ie over the coming days.