Many Americans have a complex relationship with their smartphones. For some it can be an effective communication tool, entertainment center, GPS, and search engine all in one. Yet others find themselves hooked to their phones at all times during the day and are vastly underestimating how much time they spend on their smartphone each day according to data from a new study.
Solitaired recently surveyed iPhone users from across the country to try and learn more about exactly how much time the average American is spending on their iPhone each day. To gather this data, Solitaired first asked surveyed respondents to estimate the amount of time they spent each day. After that they asked surveyed respondents to go into their usage report screen on their iPhone and send in a picture of the actual amount of time, they spend on average on their phones each day. As you might expect, American’s expectations of their smartphone use varied greatly from the actual amount of time they spent on their smartphone each day. Let’s take a deeper dive into the survey results.
Smartphone screentime for the average American
As mentioned above, the first part of the survey asked iPhone users to estimate the amount of time they spend on their phones each day. According to the survey data from Solitaired, the average Americans estimates that they spend on average 3 hours and 42 minutes on their iPhone each day. Solitaired also asked iPhone users to estimate the number of times they pickup their iPhone each day. The estimate for the number of pickups per day was 40 pickups.
Next let’s compare the estimates of daily iPhone usage to the actual amount of times the average Americans spends on their phone each day. The survey data founds that the average American spends 5 hours and 42 minutes on their iPhone each day. That’s almost 2 hours more each day than most Americans believe they spend. The actual number of pickups per day is 99 which is more than double what the average American estimates each day. As you can see the contrast from estimates vs reality is stark.
On top of that, the survey found that over 65% of Americans underestimate their daily phone usage by an hour or more each day.
Surveyed respondents were next asked how they thought their phone usage to compares to other people. 53% of surveyed respondents said they believe their daily phone usage to by normal when compared to other people. Only 18% of surveyed respondents said that their daily phone use is less than others. Amazingly almost 30% of surveyed respondents were brutally honest in saying that they definitely use their phone more than others each day on average.
The survey also found that 78% of iPhone users underestimate how much time they spend on their iPhone each day. One of the more shocking takeaways from the survey data is that 20% of surveyed respondents report that they spend over 8 hours on their smartphone each and every day. That is a huge chunk of their daily lives that is being used to stay strictly on their smartphone. It’s not surprising to see that many Americans choose to do a digital detox after realizing how much time they are spending on their phones each and every day.
The Apps that Americans use on their smartphones the most
They next part of the survey asked surveyed respondents about how they are using their phone each day, specifically in regard to the smartphone apps that they use the most each day. As you can imagine, social media apps dominated the responses from the survey. The survey data found that the average American spends at least 1 our and 23 minutes each and every day checking social media. Although the top social media app used might surprise some (hint. it’s not Facebook, Facebook actually did not crack the 7 list of most popular smartphone apps).
Listed below is the full list of the most popular smartphone apps that Americans use each and every day as well as a breakdown of how much time is spent using each app daily:
1. TikTok (1.6 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
2. Twitter (1.6 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
3. Safari (1.5 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
4. Google Chrome (1.5 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
5. YouTube (1.5 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
6. Reddit (1.3 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
7. Robinhood (1.2 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
8. Facebook (1 hour is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
9. iPhone messenger (1 hour is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
10. Instagram (0.9 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
11. Snapchat (0.9 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
12. WhatsApp (0.8 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
13. Amazon (0.7 hours is the daily average of time spent each day for the average iPhone user).
As you can see the list is probably what you would expect, just not in the order you might expect for the most popular smartphone apps for daily usage. The survey also found that over 50% of iPhone users could not correctly guess what their most used app actually was.
On a positive note, 53% of iPhone users said that they’ve made an effort cut down their phone time in the last 18 months during the pandemic. 31% of iPhone users say that someone has commented on their phone usage in a negative way that lead to some of these changes. 36% say their phone use has caused tension in a relationship.
Infographic by: solitaired
