The average American will spend the equivalent of 44 years looking at some kind of digital screen — a number that’s only increased during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent survey.
The One Poll survey of 2,000 adults in June looked at the average amount of time spent on various devices throughout each day.
It showed that in a typical day, Americans spend four hours and 30 minutes watching TV, four hours and 33 minutes looking at a smartphone, over three hours using a gaming device, and nearly five hours on a laptop.
In total, the figures represent 17 hours and nine minutes of digital device use every day, the study concluded. And over a full year, it would add up to just over 6,259 hours of total screen time — which for the average 60 years that Americans live as adults — translates to 44 years of screen time.
The figures, however, represented data collected before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the website Study Finds noted.
Since COVID-19, Americans spent over 19 hours a day perusing a digital device during lockdown, according to another One Poll survey, Study Finds reported.
“We’re lucky to have devices that connect us with the outside world,” Benjamin Dumaine of Vision Direct, which commissioned the survey, told Study Finds. “A similar pandemic taking place 30 or 40 years ago would have been people coping with the lack of contact in very different ways.”
“There are positives and negatives with screen time, but as long as people are mindful of when to limit use, there doesn’t need to be any long term damage,” he added.
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