British students use one-quarter of their time online for studying, poll claims

Participants also spend two hours a week watching 'adult entertainment'

Young people are unhappy with the education they've been offered online during lockdown (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

British students spend an average of 55 hours a week online – but only 14 hours of this doing university work, a new survey has claimed.

A poll of 1,000 students revealed that just two hours a day is spent using the internet to revise or study, with the rest of the time online spent on social media, shopping and playing video games.

Out of the 1,000 students polled, 57 per cent admitted they use the internet more for entertainment purposes than they do for studying.

The survey by broadband provider Hyperoptic claimed 14 hours a week were spent on social media, 11 hours streaming TV shows and six hours gaming.

On average participants spent three hours a week on video chat services such as Skype or FaceTime, another four hours online shopping and even two hours watching “adult entertainment”.

Charles Davies, of Hyperoptic, said: “Students are renowned for spending a lot of time online but it’s clear from the study it can be difficult to get work done when there are so many distractions.”

More than half of respondents said they get easily distracted while studying online.

This has led to two in five going to the library to avoid interruptions and almost one-quarter have even tried to block social media accounts and websites to help them focus on their work, the survey claimed.

More than one-eighth of students said they expected to be working on an iPad or tablet rather than a desktop computer or laptop within the next five years.

And a further 44 per cent predicted films would only be watched via streaming instead of on DVDs or Blu-ray.

Mr Davies added: “The research gives us an insight into the demands of future generations – always-online, multi-device households and heavy consumers of streamed video and gaming content.”

SWNS