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Social Carbon Footprint Calculator

Which social media sites have the biggest impact on the environment?

It’s easy to forget just how important social media sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram are to our daily lives these days, keeping us connected to our friends and family and up to date with what’s going on in the world.

But, just like all the other technology that we use, they have an environmental footprint too. And while a quick scroll through your feed or the odd YouTube video isn’t going to use up too much energy, over the course of a year things can start to add up, especially when you consider just how many people use these social media sites across the world.

Here’s a look at how many grams of CO₂ equivalent (gCO₂Eq) the social media giants could be producing, and you can also use our calculator to estimate how much your own social media usage could be contributing!

The social media sites with the biggest carbon footprints

1

TikTok

2.63

gCO₂Eq per minute

TikTok is one of the newest social media apps, but it’s also unfortunately the one with the biggest carbon footprint, emitting 2.63 grams of carbon equivalent for each minute that you spend scrolling. That means that if you spent just five minutes a day on the app, you’d produce 13g a day and 4.8g a year.

2

Reddit

2.48

gCO₂Eq per minute

Slightly behind TikTok was Reddit, with emissions of 2.48 grams for every minute scrolling. The social news site is currently the 21st most popular site in the world and it’s estimated that 22% of adults aged 18 to 29 in the US use it.

3

Pinterest

1.3

gCO₂Eq per minute

Pinterest completes the top three most polluting social media sites with emissions of 1.3 grams a minute of CO2 equivalent. Pinterest is an image sharing site that allows users to gain inspiration on everything from fashion to DIY.

What’s your social media carbon footprint?

So, how does your own social media usage compare? Estimate how many times you use each social media site below to see how your footprint could look over the course of a year.

How many minutes a day do you spend using:

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Pinterest

Twitch

LinkedIn

TikTok

Reddit

Snapchat

Your social carbon footprint is:

YouTube

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Facebook

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Instagram

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Twitter

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Pinterest

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Twitch

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

LinkedIn

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

TikTok

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Reddit

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Snapchat

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Total

XXgCO₂Eq per day | XXgCO₂Eq per year

Methodology

The average emissions per minute (shown in grams of CO₂ equivalent) for each app were sourced from Greenspector and were measured on a Galaxy S7 smartphone.

The social media carbon footprint calculator works by taking your number of minutes spent on each social media site and multiplying them by the estimated emissions per minute for that site, before multiplying the daily figure by 365 to calculate the annual footprint.

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