“X” definitely marks the spot.
New York, it seems, never really sleeps—not with so many of us glued to our smartphones. A recent study by a personal injury insurance firm suggests that New York is the state most addicted to social media in the country.
The research indicated that the Empire State has the highest monthly search volume for U.S.-based social media platforms, pulling in about 157,537 searches per 100,000 residents. That’s around 16% more than the national average, which is quite the statistic.
In total, New Yorkers are searching for social media terms roughly 30,831,885 times each month. That puts us in third place nationwide, trailing only California and Texas.
You might be wondering what our primary distractions are. Well, it looks like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Reddit top the list in New York. Interestingly, this order is similar across all 50 states, with just Instagram and X swapping spots at the national level.
On a related note, Virginia holds the second spot for social media addiction, averaging 156,340 searches per 100 residents, closely followed by Washington state. North Carolina and Georgia round out the top five.
The 10 states most hooked on social media:
- 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)
This data suggests that people in densely populated regions are more reliant on social media than those in more rural areas.
“You might expect folks in rural and isolated areas to engage more with social media to keep in touch, but this data actually indicates the opposite,” remarked Aaron A. Winder, a managing attorney at Winder Law Firm. “It appears social media activity is much higher in areas with lots of tech interactions.”
To assess social media usage across the states, Winder utilized Google Keyword Planner to monitor monthly searches related to prominent platforms like X, LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram over the past year.
The average monthly search volume for social media terms was calculated for each state, factoring in population size to ensure all comparisons remained fair.
