A recent study that surveyed both teens and parents on a range of screen time-related topics had some unexpected results.
The study looked at 1,453 U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17 and their parents and was conducted from September to October 2023.
According to the Pew Research Center study, 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and roughly six out of 10 said they use TikTok, Snapchat, or Instagram.
More than one out of three teens (38%) said that they spend too much time on their smartphones, while one out of four said that they spend too much time on social media. However, more than half (51%) said that the amount of time they spend on their smartphone is “about right,” while 64% said the same about social media.
Roughly four in 10 teens said they have tried to cut back on smartphone use (36%) and social media (39%).
Seven in 10 teens said that smartphones provide more benefits than harms for people their age. Over 40% of teens said that smartphones make it harder to learn good social skills.
Notably, the survey found that roughly three-quarters of teens feel “peaceful” (72%) or “happy” (74%) when they do not have access to a smartphone, though researchers noted that many teens felt “anxious” (44%), “upset” (40%), and “lonely” (39%) without their phones. However, the study noted that only a small number of teens (between 7% and 32%) said that they “often” feel such emotions when they do not have their phones.
The study also looked into parents’ behavior and found that 46% of teens feel their parents are sometimes distracted by cell phones when teenagers are trying to talk to them.
A significant number of parents (four in 10) struggle to control their children’s screen time. The study found that 10% of both parents and children said they argue often about phone use, while 28% of parents and 29% of teens said arguments happen sometimes. Just one-quarter of parents said they never argue about phone use.
