More US Consumers Connecting Online Daily to Eat, Shop and Socialize

Forty-seven million consumers across the United States socialize online every day, using messaging apps, social media, and dating apps to connect with friends, family and loved ones – and their numbers are growing fast.

That is just the first of the trends PYMNTS uncovered in “The ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: the Who’s Who of the Digital Social Scene Edition.” We surveyed a census-balanced panel of 2,638 U.S. consumers between Sept. 10 and Sept. 24, 2022, as part of our ongoing research into how the digital transformation of the U.S. economy is reshaping consumer behavior. We asked them about how they communicated online, which platforms they used, and how often they kept up with friends, family and loved ones to discover how they integrate digital socializing into their daily routines.

Key findings from our research include the following.

• More consumers have made online socializing part of their daily routines. An estimated 47 million consumers, about 18% of the adult population, now connect with friends, family and romantic partners online as part of their daily routine.

• Men use the internet to communicate 30% more than women do, but their goals for doing so are vastly different. Women go online chiefly to keep up with friends and family on social media; men go online primarily to find dates.

• High-income consumers are driving the surge in online communication. Fifty-four million consumers who went online to connect with friends, family and loved ones in the last month annually earned more than $100,000, comprising 57% of the consumers in this income bracket.

These are only the highlights of “The ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: the Who’s Who of the Digital Social Scene Edition.”

To learn more about how the digital transformation of the U.S. economy is changing how consumers incorporate socializing into their routine, download the report.