Americans Spend 12 Hours a Day on Screens—Here’s Where All That Time Goes

In our Screen Time and Internet Usage Statistics report, we found that Americans average 12 hours and 1 minute of daily screen time across devices.

Screen time used to only mean watching TV, and then using the computer, and now that we’ve added the smartphone, our exposure to screens has only increased from there. In fact, smartphones account for 4 hours and 5 minutes of screen time per day, the single largest share among devices.

We'll cover where all that time goes, which screens take up the most of it, and what those habits reveal about work, entertainment, and digital life.

Not everyone is spending 12 hours a day in binge-watching or doomscrolling sessions. The total screen time is the sum of dozens of short sessions spread across activities like work, communication, shopping, and social media. A quick minute checking notifications here and there, an episode of TV, half-watching YouTube on your laptop while you scroll your social feeds, looking for dinner options between maps and reviews. From device to device, it all adds up.

According to our survey, here's how total screen time breaks down across devices:

Smartphones top the list for screen time. Let’s go over why.

You wake up, roll over, grab your phone, and then start your day by scrolling on a screen. Your phone stays with you as you eat breakfast, get ready, commute to work, and it's there while you're working on your computer, and later while you're watching TV. You might even squeeze in a quick video or social media session before bed. In the world of screen time, the smartphone rules because it's the easiest to keep with you.

We all have our own smartphone habits, but on average, Americans spend 4 hours and 5 minutes a day on their phones. That beats out even total TV time (2 hours and 52 minutes per day) by over an hour, and that's partly because you can use your phone while you watch TV. A long episode might just mean more commercial breaks and social media checks.

Even the most popular online activities for Americans, which include email (93%), online shopping (91%), and social media browsing (89%), can be done from a phone or alongside one.

We're not just playing on our phones, but using them as a constant bridge to the rest of our lives. So what are we doing the most, and what activities actually make up the most screen time?

Americans spend an average of 2 hours and 52 minutes per day streaming TV. While it isn't the most common habit compared to email, shopping, and social media browsing, it is the most time-consuming.

That time spent watching TV squeezes out more screen time than work (2 hours and 45 minutes), social media browsing (2 hours and 36 minutes), and email (1 hour and 57 minutes).

So even though you might constantly check your phone throughout the day, or feel more "online" and busy doing other activities, TV is the largest time sink for screens.

If you're looking to cut down on your total screen time, it's worth reviewing your streaming habits and considering if you need to watch three episodes of a show every night or can cut it down to just one or two.

It's easy to feel like all of this screen time is meaningless and wasteful, but not all of it is entirely optional. According to our Screen Time and Internet Usage Statistics report, Americans spend almost as much time working online as they do streaming TV, so while it's all time spent on screens, it's both an obligation and leisure.

Between post-pandemic routines and hybrid work normalization, the lines between productive and passive screen use have become increasingly blurred.

Not only that, screens aren't always "dedicated activities." Streaming TV for 2 hours and 52 minutes a day might look like a film connoisseur in a dark room locked into a new foreign thriller for three hours every night, but it's more likely to be someone who leaves the TV on while they talk with their partner or catch up with their kids, or who tunes into a few specific shows throughout the week. Even while you're working on a screen for 2 hours and 45 minutes a day, it wouldn't be surprising to find some screen time overlap with streaming music for 2 hours and 22 minutes a day.

Considering only 62% of Americans use screens for work compared to the 85% who regularly stream TV, a person stocking shelves or driving trucks may watch about as much TV as someone who stares at Excel spreadsheets all day, but the office worker is getting a lot more screen time.

With these habits in mind, let's take a look at how they differ between the generations.

Gen Z comes out with the highest total screen time at 15 hours and 19 minutes a day, but older Americans still stand out for their total TV time.

For total screen time, the younger you are, the more likely you are to have higher screen exposure: Gen Z is over 15 hours, while Millennials clock in nearly 14 hours (13 hours and 55 minutes a day). That total average goes down to 11 hours and 11 minutes a day for Gen X, and then slightly lowers to 10 hours and 49 minutes a day for Baby Boomers.

But when it comes to specific device use, the younger folks are more likely to be on their phones, while older generations tend to tune into their TVs — Gen Z spends 4 hours and 39 minutes a day on their smartphone, and Baby Boomers rival that with their total TV time of 4 hours and 20 minutes a day.

To recap, younger people are more likely to get the most screen time overall, but part of that is device preference for phones, which are typically with us and usually tied to both obligations and leisure. Older generations may not be on their phones all the time, and are generally on screens less, but they still rack up a sizable amount of TV time.

If you're looking to slim down your screen time, it may be worth considering a digital detox to give your eyes, brain, and body a bit of a break. Even if you don't do a full detox, being more mindful of your habits and budgeting your time with screens could free up extra space for more outdoor and in-person activities.