Time Americans Spend on Their Phones

Time Americans Spend on Their Phones

Where is your mobile phone right now? If you’re like most Americans, it’s likely close by — maybe in your pocket, on the table next to you or in your hand as you’re reading this article. The average person spends 5.4 hours on their smartphone every single day. If you sleep for the recommended eight hours every night, that’s a full one-quarter of your waking hours.

More than 96% of Americans have at least one cell phone and 71% have admitted that they sleep next to their phone. So how much time does the average American spend on their cell phone, and what do we spend our time doing?

What We Check on Our Phones 

If the average person is spending more than four hours a day on their cell phone, what are they doing with that time? According to industry experts from Nielsen, SmartInsights, comScore and Pew Research Center, more than half of that time is spent on social media.

Over the course of a lifetime, that means you’ll spend a year and seven months on Facebook and more than a year and 10 months on YouTube. Snapchat will take up 14 months of your time. You’ll spend eight months on Instagram and 18 days on Twitter. What could you do over a lifetime if you weren’t spending more than a year and a half on Facebook alone?

The average American also spends upwards of 55 minutes a day texting and the remainder of the time on their phones checking email, browsing the internet and utilizing other apps. 

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How Often We Really Check Our Phone

How often does the average American check their phone? How many times did you look at your phone while you were reading this infographic? According to surveys, the average user picks up their phone 58 times every single day. That’s nearly two and a half times every hour. Even if we don’t receive a notification, most people check their phone every 15 minutes.

In spite of these staggering statistics, 82% of people believe they use their cell phones less than the national average. These polls prove that most people tend to underestimate their average usage, but in spite of these definitive numbers, two out of three users don’t plan to cut down on their cell phone usage.

Sell Your Old Phone and Upgrade 

With the sheer amount of time the average person spends on their phone, investing in a quality smartphone is crucial. If you haven’t upgraded your phone in a while, drop off your old smartphone at an ecoATM kiosk to sell or recycle your old phone while possibly earning cash that you can put toward your upgrade.

For most people, we’re never more than a few feet from our cell phone. How much time do you spend on your phone every single day? Have these statistics made you resolve to use your smartphone less, or are you planning on upgrading your current device so you can use your favorite social media apps faster? If the latter is your plan, don’t forget to check out ecoATM when you’re ready to trade in your old phone.

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