The average person spends roughly 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on social media.
The average American? They pick up their phone to check their socials on average, 186 times every day.
Globally, social media users collectively log an estimated 15 billion hours of platform time per day, that’s the equivalent of roughly 1.7 million years of human existence consumed daily by social media content.
1.7 million years. Every single day.
Quite sickening if you ask me, while this country is trillions in debt.
Here is the question nobody is asking, but I will…
What are most of those people getting in return?
Not entertainment value, no REAL connection value with other humans, and not even enjoyment value because research consistently shows that passive social media consumption is correlated with increased anxiety, decreased life satisfaction, and a growing sense that everyone else’s life is better than yours.
What are they getting financially?
Again, almost nothing.
Here’s my one hope you’ll GAIN from this article today…
The people creating the content for the almost 5.79 billion users are the ones building businesses, growing audiences, providing value, generating income, and compounding influence every single day, and it’s not taking them anymore time than those just consuming.
The people consuming it? They are making people like us rich.
This is the most underreported wealth transfer happening in the world right now, and most people are on the wrong side of it. Why? Because nobody ever told them they had a choice, so I guess I’ll do it.
The most active 25% of TikTok users post almost all of the content on the platform. The stats are similar for Facebook and Instagram.
Read that again.
One quarter of users are creating essentially everything the other three quarters are consuming and that pattern holds across every major platform. The ratio of consumers to creators is staggering and the financial results reflect it exactly.
The consumers scroll. The creators earn.
I guess the question I have to ask you now is ‘WHY ARE YOU NOT EARNING?”
This is simply an INTENTIONALITY problem.
Research shows that under 2 hours per day of social media correlates with baseline mental health, while 3 to 5 hours shows moderate correlation with anxiety and 5 or more hours shows strong correlation with depression and loneliness…
But here is what that research does not capture: the difference in outcomes between someone spending 2 hours consuming and someone spending 2 hours creating is not just psychological, it is financial.
The person scrolling through Instagram for two hours a day is spending roughly 30 days a year, 730 hours annually, watching other people build things. The person creating intentional content for even 30 minutes of those same 2 hours is building something of their own, something they can be proud of, and something that will open the door to financial opportunities.
Same amount of time, completely different return on your investment.
I want to introduce you to the word that has changed more of my students’ businesses than any strategy, any platform, or any content formula.
Intentional.
Intentional use of the time being spent on social media.
Listen, I LOVE social media. I’ve built an entire empire using it, and successful businesses over the last 16+ years, BUT there’s one thing that spperates me from most others…
I ask myself before I open any social media app this simple question…
“What is my INTENT with opening up this app right now?”
If I can’t answer that INSTANTLY, I don’t open it. It requires discipline sure, and that what most consumers don’t have. It’s also why most consumers are living paycheck to paycheck and broke.
I have clients who work full time, and some very demanding careers. They have kids in three different activities and are exhausted just like you by 8pm. Their schedule looks nothing like the “build a business in your spare time” fantasy that network marketing recruiting has historically painted, but they still are intentional with the time they DO have, every day.
They spend 30 minutes a day on social media with intent and they are making an extra $1,000 to $2,000 a month because of it.
How Coach Fryer? Well, they decided that the time they were already giving to social media was going to work for them instead of just passing through them.
That shift from passive consumption to intentional contribution is the single most important business decision a network marketer (or any person for that matter) can make and it costs you zero additional time.
I want to be specific here because intentional is not a vague concept, it is a daily practice with a clear structure of course. It requires discipline, and most don’t have any. That’s why I’m writing this article today.
The unintentional social media user opens Instagram, scrolls for 40 minutes, watches 12 reels, compares themselves to three people they went to high school with, feels vaguely worse about their life, closes the app, and opens it again 20 minutes later. NO to mention, they are then in a BAD mood for the next hour and treat others around them like crap.
Sound familiar?
The data says it should. 82% of smartphone users check their device at least once every hour, at a minimum.
The intentional social media user does something completely different with the same device and access to the same platforms.
They open Instagram with a purpose. They post one piece of content: a story, a reel, a caption that is designed to provide value to others, start a conversation or build trust with a specific type of person. They spend ten minutes engaging genuinely with people who commented on their last post or reached out in their DMs. They reach out to five new people with a real, personalized, non-pitch message. Then, they close the app.
That entire sequence takes 30 minutes, maybe less.
This does more for their business (or assists their money problems) than three hours of passive scrolling ever could because it is not time on the platform that builds a network marketing business, it is intentional human connection made possible through the platform.
Social media is the tool, the conversation is the work and the intentional distributor uses the tool to get to the work as efficiently as possible. All this is, is a decision.
Here is something I genuinely believe and have believed for 17 years now despite every shift in the industry and every challenge the profession has faced:
Network marketing is one of the best opportunities in the world for the everyday person who wants to make an extra $500 to $1,000 a month without adding a single hour to their existing screen time.
It was designed to be a part of the life you’re already living. Sure, you can make a lot more than that, if you do the work and treat it like a real business, but don’t have to.
All I’m saying here is let’s make YOUR TIME on social media, profitable. Like, pay off your credit card debt, put more into investments, actually afford to eat BETTER food, etc.
The average person spends nearly 19 hours per week on social media. They are already there. They are already on the platforms. They already have the apps, the profiles, the connections, and the daily habit of showing up online, they just aren’t doing anything with it. All that time, just wasted.
The ONE thing missing for all of them is intent.
Network marketing does not ask them to become a full-time content creator. It does not require a massive following or a media production budget or 40 hours a week of hustle. It requires consistent, intentional human connection, the kind social media was originally built for.
The distributor who replaces 30 minutes of scrolling with 30 minutes of intentional outreach, content creation, and follow-up, every single day, is building something real. Consistently, in a way that will compound over time.
That is the opportunity most people are sitting on right now. Not some new shiny thing, but rather the very thing that’s been in front of them for years and years. The same social media platforms they already use every day, just used differently than most.
Let me show you what intentional time on social media actually produces over a year versus what passive consumption produces.
The passive user spends 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on social media. Over a year that is approximately 858 hours, or roughly 35 full days, spent scrolling, consuming, and watching other people build things.
Financial return = ZERO!
The intentional network marketer spends 30 of those same minutes per day on purposeful business activity. Five reach-outs. One piece of content. Genuine and thoughtful engagement.
Over the course of a year that is approximately 182 hours of real business-building activity, replacing passive consumption with intentional contribution without adding a single extra minute to their day.
The result? The students in my community doing exactly this are consistently generating $1,000 to $2,000 per month in additional income. Some significantly more, a lot more lol.
Same device. Same platforms. Same 24 hours in a day.
Just intentional with their time, that’s all.
This is not complicated as you’re now realizing. It does not require a complete lifestyle overhaul or a 90-day productivity challenge.
It requires one decision and three daily habits.
The decision: the next time you open a social media app, you are going in with a purpose. Not to “just see what is happening,” but to actually contrbute and make something happen. one day at a time.
The three habits:
Post one piece of content every day: something personal, something that starts a conversation, something that lets people see who you actually are behind the business. No, not some salesy or spammy post to buy your thing but rather a real moment from your real life.
Send five genuine reach-outs every day: new people, existing connections, former customers, anyone you have been meaning to check in with. No pitch here, just an actual conversation with another human being. Two to three minutes per conversation is all it takes. Easy-peasy.
Engage intentionally for ten minutes: respond to every comment on your last post, reply to every story you were tagged in, acknowledge every DM that deserves a response. Show people that there is a real person behind the profile. I still answer all of MY OWN dm’s sent. People are still baffled when they realize it’s me and not some AI chat bot.
That is thirty minutes. That is the shift from consumer to contributor. That is the difference between spending 35 days a year watching other people build things and using those same hours to build something of your own. You can do this, just like the next person.
Time has never been your problem, it’s your lack of discipline and being intentional.
The average social media user engages with roughly 6.75 different platforms each month, which is absolutely just crazy to me,
Six platforms. Two and a half hours a day. 186 phone checks.
The majority of those people will end this year in the exact same financial position they started at because they spent 858 hours consuming content that made other people money.
You are reading this because you want to be on the other side of that equation, I’m sure.
The opportunity is on the same device in your pocket that’s in mine. We’re on the same platforms, but I’m getting paid and you are not.
Use them with intention, just 30-min a day, and watch what happens.
You’re like could look completely different in just 30-90 days if you took this simple step.
If someone shared this article with you, get back with them, ask them questions about how YOU can get started with them. You’ll be glad you did :)
— Brian Fryer | Creator of the GNC Method | Social Selling Coach | 18,000+ Students | 50+ Stages Worldwide
If this article spoke to you, share it with every person yo know, on your team or not yet on your team. They have more time than they think, and this will validate YOUR feelings and thoughts. Be sure to subscribe for weekly content built for serious network marketing professionals.
Ready to build with real strategy and my support? Just message me HERE and say “COACH”
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