Study: Teens average 1.5 hours of smartphone use per day during school hours

Key takeaways:

• Adolescents used their smartphones for an average of 1.5 hours per day during school hours.
• The apps they used the most were messaging apps, Instagram, video and audio streaming apps.

Teens spent an average of 1.5 hours on their smartphones during school hours, and one-quarter of them spent more than 2 hours using their phones at school, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

“While there are certainly many benefits of smartphones, there are also risks” Lauren Hale, PhD, professor of family, population and preventative medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, told Healio. “Hopefully, we can minimize those risks by setting boundaries about appropriate content, timing and location.”

Hale and colleagues recruited 117 adolescents (48.7% girls; 46.2% boys; 5.1% nonbinary or other genders) aged 13 to 18 years to download an app on their smartphones that passively tracked device use throughout the day. They investigated participants’ smartphone use between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays in May and September through November 2023.

Overall, the teens averaged 5.59 hours (95% CI, 5.06-6.12) using their smartphone each day. During school hours, they were on their phones for an average of 1.52 (95% CI, 1.31-1.73) hours and on social media for an average 0.6 hours (0.49-0.71), the researchers reported.

Additionally, half of participants spent at least 66 minutes on their phones during school hours, and one-quarter spent more than 2 hours using their phones at school.

The most commonly used apps at school were messaging apps, Instagram and video and audio streaming apps. Those who used social media apps like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook used the apps for an average 18 to 25 minutes of use per day during school hours.

“I was surprised by some of the especially high numbers,” Hale said. “What also surprised me is that when I posted my findings on social media, my friends who work in high schools were surprised the numbers were so low.”

Hale said one of the strengths of the study was using an objective method to collect smartphone use data from participants.

“Future research should continue to do objective assessment of smartphone use and also investigate potential differences in behaviors and learning that happen in schools with and without smartphone bans,” she said.