According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, Gen Z respondents were spending the most time using their phones, over *** hours a day. By contrast, Baby Boomers recorded a daily screen time of roughly ***** hours and ** minutes.  Many users feel addicted to smartphones As technology’s role in our everyday life increases, consumers tend to spend more and more time using electronic devices, whether it is for working and studying on laptops and tablets, watching TV or scrolling social media on smartphones. As a consequence, many users across all generations feel somewhat addicted to smartphones. According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, Gen Z users felt addicted to such devices the most, followed by Millennials. Taking a step back and nostalgia for early 2000s How can we combat the overwhelming urge to stay connected and take a step back from our always-on reality? In an effort to reduce screen time, many users, especially those in Gen Z, are expressing a sense of nostalgia for early 2000s technology, particularly dumb phones and wired headphones. For instance, during a 2024 survey in the United States, ** percent of Gen Z respondents stated they would be interested in purchasing dumb phones, followed by ** percent of Millennials - a trend that might involve more users in the future.

In 2024, children in the United Kingdom spent an average of *** minutes per day on TikTok. This was followed by Instagram, as children in the UK reported using the app for an average of ** minutes daily. Children in the UK aged between four and 18 years also used Facebook for ** minutes a day on average in the measured period. Mobile ownership and usage among UK children In 2021, around ** percent of kids aged between eight and 11 years in the UK owned a smartphone, while children aged between five and seven having access to their own device were approximately ** percent. Mobile phones were also the second most popular devices used to access the web by children aged between eight and 11 years, as tablet computers were still the most popular option for users aged between three and 11 years. Children were not immune to the popularity acquired by short video format content in 2020 and 2021, spending an average of ** minutes per day engaging with TikTok, as well as over ** minutes on the YouTube app in 2021. Children data protection In 2021, ** percent of U.S. parents and ** percent of UK parents reported being slightly concerned with their children’s device usage habits. While the share of parents reporting to be very or extremely concerned was considerably smaller, children are considered among the most vulnerable digital audiences and need additional attention when it comes to data and privacy protection. According to a study conducted during the first quarter of 2022, ** percent of children’s apps hosted in the Google Play Store and ** percent of apps hosted in the Apple App Store transmitted users’ locations to advertisers. Additionally, ** percent of kids’ apps were found to collect persistent identifiers, such as users’ IP addresses, which could potentially lead to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) violations in the United States. In the United Kingdom, companies have to take into account several obligations when considering online environments for children, including an age-appropriate design and avoiding sharing children’s data.

As of March 2025, internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) spent around four hours and 47 minutes daily accessing the internet via any device. Furthermore, mobile devices engaged UK users way longer than tablets or laptops, with over three hours spent daily accessing the internet via smartphones.

This statistic presents the distribution of time spent on selected digital platforms in the United States as of June 2019, sorted by age group. During the survey period, it was found that U.S. internet users aged 18 to 24 years spent 70 percent of their online minutes via smartphone apps.

As of the first quarter of 2019, internet users in North America spent an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes online via mobile, compared to only 2 hours and 33 minutes of daily non-mobile internet use. Europe is the only region where internet usage via PC, laptop or tablet still ranks ahead of mobile in terms of daily usage.

This statistic presents a ranking of the most popular mobile device activities according to smartphone users in the United States as of May 2017. During the measured period, it was found that 57 percent of survey respondents had used a smartphone or tablet to check the weather in the preceding 30 day period.