Almost half of your day is spent consuming media

A study has found we spend almost half of our day doing exactly what you are doing right now - consuming media.

Ofcom, the media regulator, has found the average person spends 45 per cent of their time awake absorbing media or communicating via gadgets.

The research is the first of its kind, in tracking exactly how long consumers spend using media.

On average, we send four times as many texts a day than in 2004 and spend almost a quarter of our time on social networking sites online.

The study found we tend to multi-task when using media, with the average person cramming nearly 9 hours of media into just over seven hours during the average day.

Younger people are even more adept at multi-tasking, cramming nearly five hours of media usage into just under two hours a day.

However, the divide between how younger and older people use technology is narrowing.

TV and radio - the traditional forms of media - are still the most popular according to the Communications Market Report into the UK's TV, radio, telecoms and internet industries.

The number of people who surf the internet on their mobile is up by half in the past year, from 9 million to 13.5 million.

Social networking site Facebook is by far the most popular site with mobile internet users, accounting for 45 per cent of all website use and leaving nearest rival Google at just 8 per cent.