Average screen time in 2026, by age

Average screen time by age

These figures come from different studies that measure different things (time online, entertainment screen use, or a share of people above a threshold), so treat them as a rough picture, not one comparable scale.

Adults

• About 6 hours 38 minutes online a day. That's the average for adult internet users worldwide in early 2025, from GWI's survey as published in DataReportal's Digital 2025 report. It barely moved from the year before.
• About 2 hours 21 minutes of it on social media worldwide (141 minutes, down slightly from 143 a year earlier). In the US the figure is about 2 hours 16 minutes; Brazil is among the highest at about 3 hours 49 minutes.
• About 2.6 hours a day watching TV in the US, more than half of Americans' roughly 5.1 hours of daily leisure time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 American Time Use Survey (people 15 and older).

Put the social media figure into a year and it's about 860 hours, more than a month of waking life spent on feeds. Our screen time calculator does the maths for your own number.

Teenagers

• Half of US teens spend 4 hours or more a day on screens. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics found 50.4% of 12- to 17-year-olds reported 4+ hours of daily screen time on a typical weekday, not counting schoolwork (July 2021 to December 2023). It rises with age: 45.6% of 12- to 14-year-olds and 55.0% of 15- to 17-year-olds.
• 8 hours 39 minutes of entertainment screen use a day for 13- to 18-year-olds, and 5 hours 33 minutes for 8- to 12-year-olds, in Common Sense Media's 2021 census. Both were about 17% higher than in 2019, with the biggest gains in online video and social media.
• Some teens are on certain apps "almost constantly". In Pew Research Center's 2024 survey, 73% of US teens used YouTube daily, including 15% almost constantly; about six in ten used TikTok daily, including 16% almost constantly; and 13% said they're on Snapchat almost constantly.

Young children

• About 2.5 hours a day on average for children up to age 8, in Common Sense Media's 2020 census: under an hour for those under 2, about 2.5 hours for ages 2 to 4, and just over 3 hours for ages 5 to 8. Online video such as YouTube is now the biggest share of young children's viewing.
• The WHO's guidance: no sedentary screen time for children under 2, and no more than 1 hour a day for ages 2 to 4, with less being better.

How to check your own screen time

Averages only go so far; your own number is what counts. On iPhone:

1. Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. Tap See All App & Website Activity.
3. Switch between Week and Day to see your daily average, the apps that took the most time, and how often you picked up your phone.

Look at which apps sit at the top. For most people it's the ones with an endless feed: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Then put your daily social media time into the screen time calculator to see what it adds up to over a year, or take the phone addiction test to see how much it's running your day.

How much is too much?

There's no agreed limit for adults, and not all screen time is equal: a video call with family isn't the same as an hour of Reels. The research points to what you do on screens, and whether it crowds out sleep, people and attention, more than the raw total.

For teenagers, the CDC found that about 1 in 4 of those with 4 or more hours a day had experienced anxiety (27.1%) or depression symptoms (25.9%) in the previous two weeks, more than teens with less screen time. That's an association, not proof that screens cause it. We cover what the research says about the feed specifically in social media addiction and what is doomscrolling.

If your number is higher than you'd like, cutting the endless feeds is usually where the time is. 10 strategies to stop doomscrolling covers the options, and Stillfeed removes Reels, Shorts and Explore on iPhone for free while keeping your messages.

Sources

• DataReportal and GWI, Digital 2025: the world is ever more connected (time online and on social media, early 2025).
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, 2024 results.
• CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Daily Screen Time Among Teenagers: United States, July 2021–December 2023 (NCHS Data Brief No. 513, October 2024).
• Common Sense Media, The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021.
• Common Sense Media, The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight, 2020.
• Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024.
• World Health Organization, To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more (2019).

Common questions

What is the average screen time for adults?

Adult internet users worldwide spend about 6 hours 38 minutes online a day, according to GWI data published in DataReportal's Digital 2025 report. About 2 hours 21 minutes of that is social media; in the US the social media figure is about 2 hours 16 minutes.

What is the average screen time for teenagers?

Half of US teenagers aged 12 to 17 (50.4%) spend 4 hours or more a day on screens, not counting schoolwork, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (2021 to 2023 data). Common Sense Media's 2021 census put average entertainment screen use for 13- to 18-year-olds at 8 hours 39 minutes a day.

How much screen time is too much?

There's no single cut-off for adults. For teenagers, the CDC found that about 1 in 4 of those with 4 or more hours a day had recent symptoms of anxiety or depression; that's an association, not proof that screens cause it. For young children, the WHO recommends no screen time before age 2 and no more than 1 hour a day for ages 2 to 4.

How do I check my screen time on iPhone?

Open Settings, tap Screen Time, then See All App & Website Activity. You'll see your daily average, which apps took the most time, and how many times you picked up your phone.