M+E Daily

Common Sense Media released a new research report revealing that teens are constantly receiving and fielding notifications on their smartphones. According to the report, over half of participants received 237 or more notifications per day. The barrage of notifications, along with smartphone use during school days and nighttime, combines to create a powerful yet complicated relationship between teens and their phones.

The new report fills a gap in understanding around how teens actually use their smartphones, combining data voluntarily collected from kids’ own phones with feedback about the data collected from Common Sense Media’s Youth Advisory Council. The conversations provide insights into the push and pull that adolescents feel with their phones, including the apps they love, the pressure they feel to respond, and the strategies they use to balance their smartphone use. For example, while TikTok was one of the most popular and longest-duration apps for teens in the study, a Youth Council member said that “the algorithm for TikTok is just way more addicting … it draws you in more.”

“This report makes it abundantly clear that teens are struggling to manage their phone use, which is taking a serious toll on their ability to focus and overall mental health,” said James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. “Young people need more support from family members and educators, as well as clear guardrails from the technologists who are intentionally designing these devices to be addictive, at the expense of kids’ well-being.”

About a quarter (23%) of the notifications arrived during school hours, suggesting that phones and apps could do a better job of eliminating unnecessary pings at times of day that are disruptive to young people. During school hours, almost all of the participants used their phones at least once, for a median of 43 minutes, and over six hours on the higher end. Youth Council members explained that school policies around smartphone use are inconsistent, with rules varying from classroom to classroom.

“Smartphones have become an always-on, sometimes disruptive force in the lives of young people,” said Dr. Jenny Radesky, Division Director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, co-Medical Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, and co-author of the report. “Because the industry has failed to offer young people better options for managing their smartphones, teens are working hard to be savvy about design features and how to set boundaries.”

In addition to constant updates, the research also found that smartphones both hurt and help teens’ sleep. From never-ending TikTok scrolling to using YouTube as calming background noise, some teens’ phones run almost all night long. Youth Council members noted that sometimes their days are so busy that they only get to relax with their phone at bedtime, but this leads to going to sleep much later on school nights.

“I feel like we’d all feel a lot better if we were on it less. When I lost my phone … I didn’t have a phone for a week, and that week was amazing,” said an 11th grade Youth Council member. “Just not having a phone, it takes this weight off of you. It almost sets you free in a way.”