The 2022 Gen Z Screen Time Report: SNEAK PEEK 👀

exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at our coolest report EVER

Helloo and Happy New Year!

VERY excited to bring you a sneak peek into our 2022 Gen Z Screen Time report. It’s ~supposed~ to come out tomorrow afternoon, but you’re our loyal friends and we wanted to share some pretty astounding facts ahead of time.

Wait! What is the 2022 Gen Z Screen Time Report?

A collection and analysis of screen time recordings from 100 Gen Z'ers to find what apps Gen Z is using, how much time they are spending on them, and how they are using each app.

The report shows down-to-the-second details on how Gen Z is spending time on their phones and paints a clear picture of the future for phone usage behaviors among Gen Z.

We basically got this (this is just a screenshot; each Gen Z’er sent a full screen recording of all of their data from the most used apps, pickups, and notification sections of their screen time iPhone reports) from 100 Gen Z’ers.

Demos collected: 50% 14-19, 50% 20-25. 49% White, 9% Black, 11% South Asian, 18% Asian, 3% Mixed and 10% Hispanic. 58% female, 42% male. From 24 different states across the US.

Now for the sneak peek:

1. The Gen Z Profile: Screen Time, Pickups + Notifs

Gen Z is spending an average of 6 hours, 38 minutes, and 38 seconds per day on our phones. That’s more than 46 hours per week (more than a full work week) and 101 days per year.

We’re also picking up our phones 159 times per day on 242 notifications.

2. Gen Z vs Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and the World

Compared to other studies online using survey data, Gen Z is 57% above the global screen time average, 95% above the UK screen time average, 69% above 18+ screen time data an 238% above the average US number of pickups.

Compared to millennials, Gen Z is spending 1.9x more time on our phones, 2.3x more than Gen X and 2.9x more than Baby Boomers. All comparative sources are listed in the report and can be found online.

3. Screen time limits and time spent per top app

20% of Gen Z’ers have self-imposed limits on their screen time usage (aka you can set limits on certain apps and Apple restricts access to the app (although it’s pretty easy to change). They also seem to work…at least a little bit. Screen time was down nearly 6 hours per week for those using limits, but nearly half of Gen Z’ers that set limits also exceeded them.

Additionally, Gen Z is spending double the time on our top used app vs our 2nd most-used app, meaning whatever app it is we’re using most (we know this from the rest of the report btw), that’s our app of choice by FAR.

What else can I expect?

We shared 3 of the 50 pages that are in the full report, so there’s plenttyyyy more to come. We break down young vs old Gen Zers, male vs female, the extremes (top 5% and bottom 5% and user profiles from each), app profiles on the top 5 apps, surprises and stats, sneak peeks at more raw data, themes and patterns, and 2022 predictions based on these results.

While I know you’re signed up for this fancy fun newsletter, we unfortunately are not going to send the whole report here, so we put a big bold clickable URL right below this to make sure you get it tomorrow.

genzscreentime.com

As a final note, I touched on this at the end of the report in our takeaways and 2022 predictions, and despite some of these slightly scary numbers, we’re optimistic about the future for Gen Z. So long as that future is built by those it will impact most. One thing we see and will continue to see with Gen Z is that while we may be victims to our devices, we understand that we hold power with the time we’re spending. We understand that our time spent watching and engaging with creators is fueling their success. Which is why we expect more of them; why we’re “canceling” and why we’re so bold.

2022 brings promise of decentralization, of new technologies changing the ways we behave and interact with one another. And while some of that is uncertain, what we do know is that Gen Z will continue to learn about and evolve its role in fueling and demanding corporate and creator responsibilities in this future.

Until next time, and wishing all a happy and healthy start to the year!!