Just over half of American adults, 53%, say they spend too much time on their smartphone, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in late May and early June 2026.
Younger adults stand out for describing their smartphone use as excessive. Younger adults stand out for describing their smartphone use as excessive. Seven-in-ten adults under 30 say they spend too much time on it, as do about two-thirds of those ages 30 to 49. Roughly half of those ages 50 to 64 and a quarter of those 65 and older say the same. About a third of adults say their smartphone use is about right, while just 3% say they spend too little time using these devices.
A generational divide in self-perception
The sense of overuse is far more common among younger adults than older ones. According to Pew’s data, 53% of all U.S. adults say they spend too much time on their phone, compared with 70% of those ages 18-29, 64% of those ages 30-49, 49% of those ages 50-64, and 25% of adults 65 and older.
The pattern lines up with other recent GCN reporting on how younger adults are rethinking their relationship with screens, including deliberate efforts to slow digital habits.
Pew surveyed 9,750 U.S. adults from May 26 to June 1, 2026. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel, and Pew said the panel is designed to represent the national adult population. The firm has tracked attitudes toward phone habits for years, allowing researchers to compare how concern has shifted across age groups over time.
The generational split also echoes a wider pattern Pew has documented elsewhere, including a growing technology gap between parents and teens, suggesting that age remains one of the strongest predictors of how Americans judge their own tech habits.
Nearly half have tried to cut back
The survey also asked whether people have acted on that discomfort. 45% of U.S. adults say they’ve tried to cut back on their smartphone use over the past 12 months. A nearly identical share (46%) says they have not tried to do so.
Among those who tried to cut back, a quarter describe themselves as highly successful at it , according to Pew.
That leaves a majority of people who attempt to scale back reporting only partial success or little change at all, suggesting that recognizing a problem and solving it can be two different challenges.
The gap mirrors a broader pattern seen in other GCN coverage of consumer behavior research, including growing support for in-school cellphone bans rather than relying solely on individual willpower. Pew has previously found rising public backing for institutional limits on phone use among young people.
Why notifications and scrolling are hard to put down
Pew’s researchers pointed to the mechanics of the devices themselves as part of the explanation, noting that between scrolling, notifications, and messages, smartphones can be hard to put down.
That observation is broadly consistent with other research on digital habits, which has examined how the frequency of checking a device and the volume of alerts received may relate to perceived overuse, separate from the total number of hours spent on a device.
That distinction, frequency of interruption rather than raw hours of use, has become a growing focus in behavioral research on digital habits, as researchers try to pinpoint which parts of smartphone design contribute to the sense that usage has become excessive. Some researchers have argued that app design choices, including autoplay features and push notifications, are intended to maximize engagement.
What the numbers suggest going forward
The survey findings indicate that a majority of adults under 50 now say they are personally concerned about their own phone use.
At the same time, the modest success rate among people who try to change their habits points to why external tools, built-in screen time trackers, app limits, and notification controls, remain popular even as their effectiveness is debated.
Pew says its research builds on years of tracking Americans’ mobile technology use, and the center plans to continue monitoring how smartphone habits evolve.
For now, the data shows a public that is aware of its own phone use but still working through ways to change it, with younger adults leading both in reporting the problem and in attempting, with mixed results, to address it.
