DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

What Happens in One Minute on The Internet

Graphic design by the author

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The life of an internet minute

Sixty seconds on the internet are insane in human terms.

Even if your grandfather was the most accurate futurologist, he would not have predicted the amount of screen time you spend on finding a match, binge-watching your favorite series, or asking the profound questions you ask on Google.

Here’s the stats of an internet minute — entire humanity’s digital footprint in a minute — as per the Statista Trend Compass 2020. See how fundamentally we have changed almost all aspects of life that remained rather static for centuries or even millennia.

• In a minute, we send 188 million emails, 18 million text messages, and 41.6 million WhatsApp messages. 390,030 calls are made on Skype alone. What has changed is not only the medium, but our sense of intimacy, proximity to some over some others, the content of the message, and manners in which we communicate.
• We do 4.5 million searches on Google every minute. Search engines and voice assistants have not only changed the effort of accessing information but also the sources and processes of obtaining information.