A new global report commissioned by Heineken has found that the average adult spends 88 days a year glued to their phone.
The study, conducted by researchers at OnePoll, tracked 17,000 adults across the USA, UK, Spain, Vietnam, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, India and the UAE. It found that the average person now spends approximately 5 hours and 48 minutes per day a day glued to their phone – equivalent to a staggering 88 days a year. This means we’re now losing nearly a quarter of the whole year to scrolling.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, on average Gen Z adults spend the most time online, racking up over six-and-a-half hours of screen time. Worryingly, one in ten (10 per cent) admitting to being glued to their phone screens for upwards of 12 hours a day. While half of adults feel as though their social battery is drained by the amount of time they spend speaking to people online, this rises to almost 62 per cent among Gen Z.
The report also found that over half of all adults (52 per cent) feel overwhelmed by the pressure to stay up to date with social media, with three in five (59 per cent) claiming that the amount of time they spend on their phone has increased in the past year. Nearly half (47 per cent) would describe themselves as “always online”, and that the stream of notifications they receive is “constant” (60 per cent). 64 per cent are “nostalgic” for the 90s and yearn for a time when people socialised without smartphones.
Further analysis from global research company Statista found that time spent socialising has decreased by 35 per cent over the last 24 years, with the amount of time spent on our phones more than doubling (rising by 54 per cent) since the creation of apps such as Instagram and Snapchat in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Heineken’s report found that 32 per cent of people sometimes postpone making plans with friends due to digital overwhelm, while 18 per cent can’t even think about organising plans.
Essentially, despite the internet and social media making it easier than ever to stay connected, 62 per cent of respondents admitted to feeling lonely at times, with a quarter reporting only seeing their friends in-person once a month or less. It’s clear that when people do manage to meet up face-to-face, they feel better for it: 79 per cent of respondents agreed that they look at their phone less when with friends, with almost a quarter claiming to have made an effort to make plans in a bid to spend less time on their phones.