Are We Finally "Over" Our (Constant) Phones?
Waiting for coffee? Check Instagram.
Standing in line? Read the news.
Watching a movie? Apparently, that’s also a great time to scroll.
Somewhere along the way, our phones went from filling the occasional boring moment to filling…pretty much every moment.
And lately, more of us seem to be wondering: Are we finally getting sick of our phones?
The answer is complicated.
We certainly aren’t getting rid of them. But we are starting to look at them a little differently.
“I Should Probably Spend Less Time on This Thing”
If you’ve ever checked your weekly Screen Time report and immediately closed it like you’d opened someone else’s medical records, you’re in good company.
A 2026 YouGov survey found that 53% of Americans want to reduce the amount of time they spend looking at screens. Among adults under 30, that number jumps to 69%, and more than a third said they had intentionally tried to cut back within the previous year.
People are also doing something about it.
Deloitte found that 83% of consumers surveyed had taken at least one step to create boundaries around their digital lives. Many regularly put devices away around friends and family, take intentional screen breaks, turn off notifications, or keep phones out of the bedroom.
“Do Not Disturb” may finally be living up to its name.
We’re Spending A LOT of Time Online
That desire for some breathing room makes sense.
Deloitte’s 2024 Connected Consumer Survey found that Americans surveyed spent an average of eight hours a day engaged in online activities, with Gen Z and millennials averaging around nine.
Of course, plenty of that time is useful: work, maps, music, texting, shopping, paying bills, watching shows, and figuring out whether the weird bug in your kitchen is going to kill you.
Still, eventually it all starts to feel like…a lot.
The Notifications Aren’t Helping
Texts. Emails. News alerts. Social media. Delivery updates. Calendar reminders. Someone you went to high school with 22 years ago just posted a Reel.
Extremely urgent stuff.
Research highlighted by the American Psychological Association suggests that constant smartphone notifications can make concentration harder, while turning them off or grouping them together can reduce interruptions.
... Which makes sense.
It’s difficult to fully enjoy a conversation, book, dinner, movie, painting, or sunset when your pocket keeps buzzing.
But We Still Like Our Phones
This isn’t exactly an anti-technology revolution.
In Deloitte’s survey, 78% of respondents said digital experiences had a somewhat or very positive impact on their lives. And Deloitte’s 2025 research found U.S. households surveyed were actually spending more on connected devices than the year before.
So maybe we aren’t sick of our phones.
Maybe we’re sick of feeling like we’re supposed to be looking at them all the time.
It's time to get back to doing physical things with people that are actually sitting across from us.
... Go to dinner. Take a walk. Read a book. Cook something. Make something. Paint something.
... Spend a couple of hours focused on what’s actually happening in front of you instead of wondering whether someone texted.
That may be why activities that require your hands (*and your attention) can feel especially refreshing right now.
After all, it’s difficult to doomscroll while you’re trying to mix the perfect shade of blue.
For a little while, nobody needs to respond, optimize, scroll, or keep up.
You just get to do something.
So, maybe ww don’t need to break up with our phones, but after years of squeezing a screen into nearly every available moment, there does seem to be a growing desire to reclaim a few of them.
The coffee line can just be a coffee line.... Dinner can just be dinner.... A night out can just be a night out.
And perhaps the newest luxury isn’t having the latest phone.
Maybe it’s forgetting where you put yours for a couple of hours.