Putting a Finger on Our Phone Obsession

This dscout study tracked 94 Android users for five days using a custom app that logged every tap, swipe, and click, finding that the average person touches their phone 2,617 times a day (5,427 for the heaviest 10% of users), spread across roughly 76 separate sessions daily. Nearly half of all sessions occurred on a locked screen, and 87% of participants checked their phones at least once between midnight and 5am. More than half of sessions involved only a single app, with Facebook, Inc.'s suite (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp) and Alphabet's apps together accounting for roughly 43% of all touches. Gaming and shopping apps (especially Etsy and Groupon) generated the most touches per session, while messaging and social media dominated overall touch volume. Despite the scale of use, 66% of participants underestimated their own phone habits, and most reacted to the data with only brief surprise before shrugging it off.