A Reviews.org survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, conducted in Q4 2025 with a ±4% margin of error, found that people use their phones for an average of 5 hours and 1 minute a day. More than half of respondents reported several of the same habits, which makes those habits good squares for a “doomscrolling bingo” card.
The Bingo Card: The Most Common Phone Habits
Share of respondents reporting each habit in the Reviews.org survey:
- Using a phone while watching TV: 87%
- Using a phone at work: 72%
- Checking a notification within five minutes: 71%
- Using a phone on the toilet: 68%
- Texting someone in the same room: 61%
- Using a phone during dinner: 56%
- Sleeping with the phone next to the bed: 50%
- Panicking when the battery drops below 20%: 41%
- Using a phone while driving: 29%
Additional figures from the same survey:
- Respondents checked their phones 186 times per day, down from 205 times in 2024.
- 53% have never gone a full day without using their phone.
- 46% describe themselves as addicted to their phone, up from 43% in 2024.
- Baby Boomers reported the lowest phone use, at 2 hours and 8 minutes per day.
Total Screen Time Across All Devices
A separate Reviews.org survey of 1,000 Americans, published in July 2026, measured combined screen time on all devices at 12 hours and 1 minute per day.
Daily time by device:
- Smartphone: 4 hours 5 minutes
- Connected TV: 2 hours 52 minutes
- Laptop: 2 hours 7 minutes
- Desktop: 1 hour 41 minutes
- Tablet: 1 hour 16 minutes
Daily time by generation:
- Gen Z: 15 hours 19 minutes
- Millennials: 13 hours 55 minutes
- Gen X: 11 hours 11 minutes
- Baby Boomers: 10 hours 49 minutes
By activity, streaming TV takes 2 hours 50 minutes per day, work takes 2 hours 45 minutes, and social media takes 2 hours 36 minutes. Social media is used by 88.92% of respondents, behind email (92.6%) and online shopping (90.61%).
The Global Picture
The Digital 2026 Global Overview Report by DataReportal, Meltwater, and We Are Social reports the following:
- More than 6 billion people use the internet, a global penetration rate of 73.2%.
- Social media user identities total 5.66 billion, equal to 68.7% of the world’s population.
- Adult internet users visit an average of 6.75 social platforms each month.
- Women aged 16 to 24 spend the most time on social and video platforms, at an average of 3 hours 40 minutes per day.
- Streaming services account for more than 50% of total TV viewing time worldwide.
What Research Says About Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling means compulsively scrolling through negative news and content. Key studies on the behavior:
- University of Florida, 2022: Benjamin K. Johnson and Bhakti Sharma published a validated scale for measuring doomscrolling in Technology, Mind, and Behavior. Men and younger people scored higher than women and older adults. Scores did not differ across political ideologies. The behavior was associated with fear of missing out and constant smartphone connectivity.
- Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 2024: A study of roughly 800 university students in the United States and Iran linked doomscrolling to existential anxiety, distrust of others, and a pessimistic view of human nature.
- Oxford University Press, 2024: “Brain rot” was named the Oxford Word of the Year after its usage rose by 230% between 2023 and 2024.
What Happens After Mobile Internet Is Blocked
A randomized study published in PNAS Nexus in February 2025 (Castelo, Kushlev, Ward, Esterman, and Reiner) blocked mobile internet on participants’ smartphones for 14 days. Calls and text messages still worked.
Study details and results:
- Participants: 467, with an average age of 32.
- Compliance: 119 participants (25.5%) kept the block on for at least 10 of the 14 days.
- Screen time: Daily smartphone use among participants who kept the block on fell from 314 to 161 minutes, a 48% decrease.
- Mental health: 70% of participants reported improved mental health, and 73% reported higher well-being.
- Depressive symptoms: The drop was larger than the effect usually recorded for antidepressants.
- Attention: 59% showed better sustained attention. The improvement was comparable to reversing 10 years of age-related decline.
- Sleep: Participants gained about 18 minutes of sleep per night.
Redirecting Screen Time
Hours freed from scrolling can go to structured online work. Launching a personal website, portfolio, or online store starts with registering a domain. Name availability across extensions such as .com, .io, and .store can be checked through the Namecheap domain name search. Profiles of independent online workers, and the work patterns that separate high earners, are covered in an overview of the four types of successful digital freelancers.
Practical measures supported by the data above:
- Removing the phone from the bedroom applies to the 50% of users who sleep next to it.
- Turning off non-essential notifications applies to the 71% who respond within five minutes.
- Blocking mobile internet for set periods follows the method tested in the PNAS Nexus study.
