Hooked Brits spend 30 hours a week online

A survey commissioned by uSwitch has estimated that the average UK citizen spends some 30 hours a week on the Internet.

This is a figure which uSwitch describes as “astonishing”, although it has to be pointed out that it includes time spent online at both home and work during weekdays.

According to the research, on a weekday the average person spends two hours online at work, and three hours online at home.

However, some 18-24 year-olds went much further than this when it came to weekends. 19% of this age group spent 8 hours plus online per day at the weekend.

Social networking is cited as one of the main reasons Brits spend so much time online, with a quarter of the 2700 adults surveyed admitting that they “needed” to check in with their Facebook or Twitter account at least once every day.

When is the first rehab clinic for social networking addicts going to open, we wonder…

The economic downturn has also pushed more people into grabbing bargains by shopping on the Web, with some 93% of respondents saying they shop online.

uSwitch commented that broadband is “rapidly becoming a necessity – as important to our quality of life as gas or electricity”.

Although no-one has ever frozen to death due to their ISP going down, as far as we’re aware.