September 27, 2023 – Some children only use their smartphones a couple of times a day, others check their notifications as much as 498 times in 24 hours. According to a brand new study based on data collected with permission, usage time ranges from a couple of minutes to 16 hours day by day.
The primary uses throughout the school day were social media, YouTube and gaming. Many said TikTok was irresistible. One 11Th Grader described having 10 free minutes as ideal.
“You don’t actually have to go in, like YouTube you have to go in, you have to search for something, you have to find a video that you want to watch,” said eleventhTh Grader said, based on the report. “And on TikTok it’s really just there. You can open it at any time. And even in a short period of time, you can still watch at least two or three videos.”
The report was published by Common Sense and the CS Mott Children's Hospital of the University of Michigan Medicine. Common Sense is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing technology and entertainment advice for families and schools.
Some teens said they proactively use Do Not Disturb features and need to actively control how their phone impacts their day. Common Sense estimates that 43% of tweens ages 8 to 12 have smartphones and as much as 95% of teens ages 13 to 18 have smartphones.
The study involved 203 11- to 17-year-olds within the United States who agreed to have their smartphone activities tracked by an app for per week. Participants were Android smartphone users only, as Apple phones don't share data with researchers in the identical way as Android phones. Among the questions the researchers desired to answer were how often children receive notifications, how often they use their phones during school and at night, how much tension or frustration they've with their smartphones, and the way they address them.
The study found the next:
- On a typical day, teens receive 237 notifications, and about 25% of them arrive during school and 5% at night.
- The average phone usage time during school is 43 minutes.
- School phone policies vary widely from school to highschool and classroom to classroom and should not all the time enforced.
- Teens use their phones to chill out before bed, sometimes they hearken to music, but sometimes they postpone their bedtime until later because they spend time on their phone to catch up after a busy day.
“The good news is that many young people report that they are better understanding their phone's attempts to lure them in and are taking steps to protect their digital well-being, such as setting time limits and prioritizing certain types of notifications,” he wrote Common Sense's founder and CEO, James P. Steyer, JD, has a background as a civil rights attorney. “But the business model of these apps and devices depends on young people picking up their phones and engaging with them as often as possible, and it’s clear that teenagers are struggling to set boundaries.”
The report's authors suggested reviewing the notification settings in your phone and their very own phone along with your child, discussing which apps send essentially the most and the way you'll be able to adjust the settings to avoid additional disruptions. Talk about adjusting the settings to fit your child's needs.
The authors also suggested that “stopping and thinking about how your phone tries to get your attention can lead to great family and classroom discussions, and can give users a sense of control over how often they use it.” Use your smartphone.”