In 2021, 'Seumusal' Read Fewer Books and Became More 'SNS Holic' Compared to 2011

by Kim Eunha

Published 12 Feb.2024 08:56(KST)

Updated 15 Jul.2024 13:37(KST)

'20-year-olds who don't use SNS, from 47% to 12% in 10 years'

A survey revealed that the reading volume of 'twenty-year-old (19 years old)' youths in 2021 significantly decreased compared to that of 'twenty-year-old (19 years old)' youths in 2011. Although the two groups are a decade apart, they showed a stark difference in SNS usage. The amount of reading, excluding lecture materials, reference books, comics, and magazines, was found to have greatly declined.

(This photo is not directly related to the article.) [Photo source=Pixabay]

On the 12th, Namgung Ji-young, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, and others presented these results by comparing 4,850 individuals who turned twenty in 2011 with 5,705 individuals who turned twenty in 2021 in the report titled "Korean Education Longitudinal Study: Life and Outcomes in Early Adulthood (Ⅰ)".

Among the group who turned twenty in 2021, only 11.96% responded that they do not use SNS. This means nine out of ten use SNS. However, among respondents who turned twenty in 2011, 47.08% did not use SNS, meaning one out of two did not use SNS. The proportion of twenty-year-olds not using SNS decreased to about a quarter over ten years.

The difference in SNS usage time was also significant. Among twenty-year-olds in 2021, 22.81% reported using SNS for 3 to 5 hours per week. Additionally, 16.73% reported using SNS for 6 to 10 hours per week.

In contrast, twenty-year-olds in 2011 most frequently reported using SNS for less than 1 hour per week (14.76%), followed by 1 to 2 hours per week (13.67%).

[Photo by Korea Educational Development Institute]

In 2011, there was little difference between males and females in the proportion of SNS non-users or in activity time, but in 2021, females invested more time in SNS activities than males.

Among twenty-year-olds in 2021, 18.36% of males responded that they do not use SNS, whereas only 5.63% of females responded the same. In contrast, in 2011, the difference between males (48.94%) and females (45%) who did not use SNS was minimal.

[Photo by Korea Educational Development Institute]

The reading time of twenty-year-old youths has significantly decreased. In 2021, 38.1% of twenty-year-olds responded that their average monthly reading volume was less than one book. In 2011, the largest proportion (34.13%) responded that they read an average of one book per month. Among the 2011 group, 25.11% responded that their monthly reading volume was less than one book.

Meanwhile, the digital research agency DataReport revealed in January that the number of active SNS users worldwide surpassed 5 billion. Additionally, the research firm DataAI reported that Android smartphone users spent a total of 2.3 trillion hours on SNS last year, a 42% increase since 2020.