Average Screen Time Statistics For 2024

How much phone time are you exposing yourself to during a workday? Let’s look at a few screen time statistics to find out.

How Much Time Does The Average Person Spend on Their Phone in a Lifetime?

The average person will spend 8.74 years of their life, as per a Whistleout survey of 1k respondents. That’s 76,500 hours on their smartphone or we can say almost a decade! More specifically, millennials spend nearly 23.1% on their smartphone, which is almost a quarter of their waking lives.

General Screen Time Statistics

1. The average screen time spent by users aged 16 to 64 across media platforms and different devices is 6 hours 37 minutes per day. (Data Reportal)

How does that vary across children and parents?

2. 51% of U.S. parents reported giving 3 hours and above for screen time other than homework to their children. (Insider Intelligence)

3. During Covid-19 in 2020, out of 3640 parents in the U.S. 56% of parents reported having too much screen time. (Pew Research Center)

So, parents and children are spending more amount of time on screens than what is considered healthy.

4. According to a survey of 888 K-12 educators, 80% reported that increased children’s screen time worsens their behavior. (Brightspot)

5. Per a survey of over 2600 Americans, 132.8% of the screen time change is seen from 2019 to 2021 in Mississippi state. The state holds 5.67 hours as the average daily screen time, the highest out of all. (Simple Texting)

Average Screen Time Across Electronics, Social Media & Entertainment

In this new age of technological advancement, the amount of time spent on a device for daily entertainment is steadily increasing. The section below tells us how using a screen varies across different platforms and devices of entertainment.

1. South African internet users spend more than 10 hours and four minutes a day online for their daily boost of serotonin, ranking the highest of all countries in the world. (Statista)

2. The total entertainment screen time increased by 17% for tweens (children aged between 8 to 12 years) and teens from 2019 to 2021. (Common sense media)

3. The highest media use time is 8 hours 39 minutes per day for teenagers (children aged between 13 to 18 years) per a survey of 1306 U.S. kids. (Common sense media)

4. The same report shares that looking at a screen for watching television, and online videos have taken up popularity amongst kids.

65% of tweens spend 3 hours and 4 minutes every day in front of a screen watching television every day.
77% of teens spend 3 hours and 34 minutes daily on online videos. (Common sense media)

A lot of screen time is also spent on social media by users worldwide. As of 2022, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 147 minutes per day.

5. Western and Northern Europe ranked the highest, with an 84% penetration rate for social media networks. (Statista)

6. In TMT’s prediction for this year in the UK, a 13% share of screen time will be given to social media as compared to 10% in 2017. (Deloitte)

Mostly, the older generation (age 55+) will be affected since their total annual video consumption is 42.3 billion hours in 2019 compared to 20.1 billion hours for 16–34-year-olds and 9.5 billion for ages 4-15 years old.

All sources of entertainment are made to keep us engaged consistently, whether we like it or not.

7. Gen-Z are the most glued to a phone screen among all generations. 76.3% of Gen-Z are more glued to their phones than they would like, per a survey of over 2600 Americans. (Simple Texting)

How Much Time Does The Average Person Spend On Their Phone?

Screen time has increased from pre-pandemic to post. In 2019, an average person in the U.S. spent 3 hours and 43 minutes on their phone, as per eMarketer.

Whereas, per the latest survey of 17 industries and 30 markets, an average person spends 4.8 hours a day i.e. 1/3 of daily waking hours, on their phones per Data.ai.

Phone Addiction: How Often Do We Check Our Phones?

Mobiles have become such a part of our lives that we feel uneasy if they are not around. On average, Americans check their phones 344 times per day i.e. once every 4 minutes per a survey of 1000 adults.

71% of us check our phones as soon as we wake up.

Whereas, 74% of us can’t leave our phones at home without feeling uncomfortable. (Reviews)

Screen Time Statistics by Demography

1. Women spend more time on their phones than men. 78% of women spend more time with their phones than with their romantic partners. (Sell cell)

2. During Covid-19 in 2020, out of 3640 parents in the U.S., 71% were concerned that their children under the age of 12 in the U.S. are spending too much time on a screen. (Pew Research Center)

3. 48% of parents with children under the age of five reported their kid had interacted with a tablet, and 55% claimed the same for smartphones.

For tweens and teens, looking at a screen for entertainment varied in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and family income.

4. Boys had a higher screen time as compared to girls, whether they were a tween or a teen. 64% of boys between ages 8 to 18 spend it watching online videos (Common Sense Media)

The average daily entertainment screen time for a tween boy is six hours, whereas for a girl is about five hours.
As a teen, the average screen time spent on daily entertainment by a boy is 9 hours 16 minutes, whereas, for a girl, it falls at 8 hours 2 minutes.

5. 66% of Hispanics or Latinos use screens for watching online videos. Out of all ethnicities, Hispanic or Latino tweens spent the highest on screen time for entertainment. This goes up to 7 hours a day for tweens, whereas as a teen, it grew to 10 hours a day. (Common sense media)

6. When it comes to family income, 65% of tweens and teens from low-income families enjoy spending their overall screen time on online videos as well. (Common sense media)

Middle-income teens spend the highest time on entertainment, reaching up to 9 hours and 34 minutes per day
Whereas, for tweens, the highest time is spent by low-income families, reaching up to 7 hours and 32 minutes per day.

How To Reduce Your Average Screen Time?

It’s become a common practice for everyone to spend hours in front of screens for entertainment and social connection apart from work since the pandemic. This has caused various negative changes in our emotional well-being and physical health. The below statistics show us the impact screens have on our lifestyle and the tips to improve it.

1. Keeping track of total screen time: Digital grounding is common for parents to reduce their child’s screen time. The top-rated method limits the time of day or length of time spent on a screen by their child aged 5 to 11 by 86% of parents. (Pew Research Center)

2. A Digital Detox: A seven-day abstinence from social media apps improved mental-wellbeing and reduced FOMO for 61 participants. (MDPI)

So, resetting the body’s dependence on screens will improve daily tasks.

3. Switching off all screens before bedtime: Screens emit blue light that affects the body’s circadian rhythms.

As per a survey of 547 college women in India, 94.5% reported increased use of screens during the pandemic, out of which 63.24% reported severe sleep-wake difficulties. (Ijo)

So, increased screen time causes poor sleep quality. For which the best solution is to switch off all screens 1 hour before bedtime.

4. Turn on dark or eye protection mode on screens: Per a survey of 2603 Americans, 54.7% associate screen time with eye strain. (Simple Texting)

So, turning on eye protection mode on laptops and mobiles will help reduce the impact that screens have on our eyes.

5. Engaging in physical exercise: Per a survey of 3052 Americans, screen time increased and physical activity reduced for 32.3% of active participants leading to deteriorating mental health when covid-19 restrictions were imposed in 2020. (Cambridge)

Read a book, spend time with your family, journal, go on a walk, or do some light yoga instead. In the morning, let Instagram or Facebook not be the first things you see. Develop a morning routine focused only on you. Enjoy a quiet cup of coffee, cook yourself a wholesome and healthy breakfast, or do some light stretching.

As long as you prioritize your physical health and find time for hobbies outside of your screens, the brain remains happy and active.

Frequently Asked Questions on Screen Time

What is the average screen time?

6 hours and 57 minutes per day are spent looking at a screen every day for all internet activities. The breakdown includes a person who spends 3 hours on a phone on social media, listening to music and podcasts. (Comparitech)

How many hours of screen time is healthy?

Experts say outside of work, only 2 hours per day should be spent on screen for adults. (Reidhealth)

How much time does Gen Z spend on their phone?

GenZ spends about 5.9 hours a day on its phones consuming content. (Wearearise)

Final Thoughts

Since the pandemic, our dependency on screens to fill boredom and even be productive has increased exponentially. And with the advancement of the technological age, this will become concerning, especially for the younger generation. But, screens aren’t completely awful.

If used correctly, they can contribute more to our efficiency and growth. The key is not to let them get the best of us.

Understanding screen time and its effect on our productivity can take us a step closer to digital well-being. Setting a balance between offline and screen time will go a long way.

An older version of this article was written by Rochi Zalani.