Digital lifestyles are seeing Thais online 10.05 hours a day, according to the Thailand Internet User Survey for 2018.
The survey was conducted by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) during June 15 to July 18 this year with 10,787 respondents.
Surangkana Wayuparb, executive director and president of the ETDA, said Thais this year are spending 3.41 more hours online than last year.
Generation Y (18-37 years old) and Gen Z (younger than 18) are the groups spending the most time online, at 10.22 hours, while Gen X (38-53) and baby boomers (54-72) spend 8.21 hours.
Thais on average use 3.30 hours per day for social media, two hours for chatting, 2.35 hours for TV/movie/music online, 1.51 hours for online gaming and 1.31 hours reading books or articles.
The survey found that the most popular social media forums for Thais are YouTube, Line, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Pantip, Twitter and WhatsApp.
The top three social media platforms -- YouTube, Line and Facebook -- have been the top three for three straight years, but for the first time Line outperformed Facebook by ranking second after YouTube.
Line, YouTube, Facebook, Messenger and Pantip are most popular social media platforms for baby boomers and Gen X users, while Gen Y and Z use YouTube, Line, Facebook, Messenger and Instagram the most.
The top five online activities are social media, email, searching, TV/music and shopping. Online shopping ranked fifth for the second year. This will drive overall Thailand's e-commerce to reach 3 trillion baht in 2019, especially when the electricity required for blockchain and cryptocurrencies is included.
The survey also found that the top five activities for which internet users have shifted away from offline to online are sending messages (94.5%), hotel bookings (89.2%), ticket bookings/purchases (87%), payment for goods and services (82.8%) and movies and music (78.5%).
Mrs Surangkana said Thai users' behaviour risks personal data violations. They do not change their passwords every three months, they reveal their real birth dates on social media, they neglect to check whether or not website addresses are secure (bearing https://) when performing transactions online through banking websites, they open emails or click on links that are of unknown origins, and they upload pictures or videos on social media immediately.
By generation, the riskiest generations are baby boomers and Gen Z. Gen X is also at risk because this cohort is willing to share their real-time locations.
Users should utilise privacy settings, always ticking the "private" or "shared only with friends and family" option, Mrs Surangkana said.