Israelis spend 12 hours a day on screens, survey finds

"CoVID-19 has left us all in homes and changed the way we work, buy and study and most importantly emphasized the need for a stable internet that has become a basic consumer product in every home."

By ZEV STUB
A child sits at the computer (photo credit: FLICKR)
A child sits at the computer
(photo credit: FLICKR)
Under isolation at home during the pandemic, Israelis spend an average of 12 hours a day in front of a screen, according to a report by Bezeq.
“During the past year, the screen, which was previously perceived as a divider between people, has become a connecting factor and it seems we cannot do without it,” said Keren Leizerowitz, Bezeq’s VP of Marketing and Innovation. “Corona has left us all in homes and changed the way we work, buy and study, and most importantly emphasized the need for a stable Internet that has become a basic consumer product in every home.”
The Internet seeped into all aspects of our lives in 2020, including fitness. Some 57% of survey respondents said they now exercise at home, and 71% of those work out with guidance from videos on YouTube.
Dating on Zoom became normal as well, with 40% of singles saying they went on online dates. Not surprisingly, 65% said it was not as enjoyable as in-person dates, although 64% said that they helped save a lot of time.
Some 90% of people shopped online in 2020, with 25% experiencing e-commerce for the first time; 48% of Internet users transferred money online for the first time in 2020; and 70% learned to use Zoom for the first time. Also, 94% of people handled some of their bureaucratic affairs online.
Telemedicine became more popular in 2020, as people stayed online to order prescriptions, consult a doctor or nurse, and order home remedies and psychological treatment. However, 70% of the respondents fear a misdiagnosis when done online.
Of course, this all came with huge costs to the family unit. Working mothers are particularly stressed by the new reality, with 43% reporting that they feel worse when working from home, while 69% of parents admitted that they were less careful this year about the time limits that the children spent in front of the screens.
Of students learning at home via Zoom, 83% of students surveyed reporting loneliness, 62% of girls answered that they experience depression and anxiety, and 60% of all students surveyed said they would not want to continue studying online.
Regarding the workplace, 68% said they had started working from home in the past year, with 63% saying that they would like to continue doing so in the future. However, 69% of working parents said that working from home harmed their work-life balance, and 57% said they were working more hours now.
At the end of 2020, 77% of all households – or 6.7 million Israelis – were Internet users, Bezeq said.


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