“X” marks the spot.
We’re the city that never sleeps — because we’re always scrolling on our smartphones. New York is the most social media-addicted state in the union, according to a recent survey by the personal injury firm Winder Law Firm.
Their analysts found that the Empire State boasts the highest monthly search volume per capita when it comes to Google search terms related to US-based social media platforms, with 157,537 monthly searches per 100,000 residents — 16% higher than the national average.
All told, New Yorkers average 30,831,885 monthly searches for these terms in the state, the third highest in the union after California (56,670,340) and Texas (46,353,266).
What’s our poison when it comes to wasting New York minutes on our phones? The state’s five favorite platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and Reddit. The breakdown was similar across all 50 states, swapping just Instagram and X for No. 3 and 4 spots nationally.
Meanwhile, clocking in second for social media obsession was Virginia with 156,340 monthly searches per 100 residents, followed by Washington in third (153,725).
Meanwhile, North Carolina and Georgia rounded out the top five with 153,583 and 153,418 monthly searches, respectively.
The 10 most social media addicted states were:
- New York (157,537)
- Virginia (156,340)
- Washington (153,725)
- North Carolina (153,583)
- Georgia (153,418)
- Massachusetts (152,178)
- Texas (151,961)
- Oregon (147,383)
- Illinois (146,896)
- Pennsylvania (145,650)
These results revealed that population centers were more social media-obsessed than more remote regions.
“While you might assume that people in more rural or isolated states would use social media platforms more to stay connected, this data shows the opposite,” said Aaron A. Winder, Managing Attorney at Winder Law Firm. “We can see that social media engagement is much more concentrated in high-density areas that are known more for their tech scene.”
To gauge the degree of social media addiction per state, Winder used Google Keyword Planner to track the monthly search totals for terms related to major platforms, including X, LinkedIn, Threads, Instagram, in each state over the past year.
These figures were averaged to deduce the average monthly search volume for said social media-related terms in each region, making sure to factor in the total populations to allow for a fair comparison between states of different sizes.
