Most students want to reduce screen time, as study finds they risk scrolling for 25 years of their life

Students are on track to lose 25 years of their life to their phones, research has found, as concerns rise over young people’s attention spans and the damaging impact of smartphone use.

A study led by Fluid Focus, an application that rewards healthier screen time and productivity habits, and Dr Paul Redmond, a leading expert in generational theory, has found that students spend, on average, five hours and 30 minutes daily on their phones.

This time increases with age, with secondary school students averaging five hours and 12 minutes, compared to university students at six hours and 12 minutes.

For university students, this amounts to 94 days per year, and 27.9 waking years in a lifetime.

The study found that less than one in 25 students can study for an hour without picking up their phone, with roughly 40% checking their phone every five to 10 minutes

The report, which was published in June, surveyed 2,842 students from 18 educational institutions about the topics of screen time, study, social media, and broader wellbeing.

Split into 10 distinct sections, and five sections for recommendations, the report covers the scale of smartphone use, the impact on academics, the impact on wellbeing, the desire for change, and the impact of apps like Fluid Focus.

The study found that less than one in 25 students can study for an hour without picking up their phone, with roughly 40% checking their phone every five to 10 minutes.

The report notes that this fall in focus will negatively impact on employability, with Harvard Business Review acknowledging ‘deep focus’ as one of the most valued soft skills in high-performance workplaces.

Ultimately however, the study noted that 94% of university students want to reduce time spent on their phone, with the vast majority feeling that reducing screen time will improve wellbeing (96%) and academic performance (92%).

What’s powerful is how students feel that it’s damaging their academic performance. That awareness — that ‘I could do so much better if I managed this’ — is telling

Dr Paul Redmond, co-leader of the study

Dr Redmond, who co-led the study, highlighted this desire for change, writing on LinkedIn: “What’s powerful is how students feel that it’s damaging their academic performance. That awareness – that ‘I could do so much better if I managed this’ – is telling.”

A final-year student at Warwick, who identifies with the 94% wishing to reduce their screen time, told The Boar: “In an attempt to reduce screen time, I installed a handful of apps focused on blocking applications and removing all short-form content.”

One section of the report highlighted the impact of such applications, like Fluid Focus.

The app, while not positioning itself as a ‘silver bullet’, attempts to be part of the solution by blocking apps during set times and blocking notifications during ‘focus sessions’.

The report demonstrated that a pilot of the application, involving 613 students, led to a reduction in smartphone usage of 54 minutes on average.

While [installing apps focused on blocking applications] has been minorly effective in reducing my screen time, the overall effect is small since I tend to find ways around it, either by using different screens or different applications

University of Warwick student

One of the students involved in the pilot, who was aged between 25 and 30, said the app “helped motivate me to manage my time, commit to studying, focus on meaningful activities like family time, and it even fixed my sleep”.

Contrastingly, the Warwick student mentioned: “While [installing apps focused on blocking applications] has been minorly effective in reducing my screen time, the overall effect is small since I tend to find ways around it, either by using different screens or different applications.”

The student concluded: “There doesn’t seem [to be] a great solution right now.”