Beep beep.

Snooze.

Beep beep.

Snooze.

Sophomore Sophia Austin is up every night on her phone until at least 1 a.m., so she often oversleeps on school mornings. Throughout the school day, she goes on her phone every chance she gets, even when she’s not allowed to. Austin admits it is more than a habit.

According to Cosmotogether, in 2024, teens spent an average of  7 hours and 22 minutes on their screens. This time equates to 43% of a teen’s waking hours spent on a screen. In contrast, many experts recommend teens only spend two hours or less on screens per day. 

Junior Mackenzie Ruping’s daily screen time is 10 hours daily, with an average of over four hours spent on Snapchat.

“Even though I feel like my screen time is normal for my age group, I feel like I need to stop being on my phone so much and put my energy towards more useful things, such as studying for school or [practicing] sports,” Ruping said.

Many teens go above the recommended hours on screen time by about five hours but do not put in the effort to take down their screen time. 

“I could limit my screen time if I really tried, I just don’t because I wouldn’t know what to do without it,” sophomore Addy Winarski said. 

Her daily screen time amounts to six hours, with her most used app being Snapchat.

On average, teens spend around 40 hours weekly on a screen, which imitates the schedule of a full time job. Teens decide to sit and scroll rather than get ahead on work or pay attention in class.

“I think phones have caused people to do worse in school because it’s an easy distraction away from their work…instead of doing their work in class, they’re sitting on their phone watching reels,” Austin said.

Austin spends an average of 10-12 hours on her phone, with her most used app being TikTok.

Most teens, when asked if they could leave their phone for more than a day, answered no.

“Absolutely not, I could not survive a day without my phone. I think I would go insane,” sophomore Kylee Matos said. 

Matos’ average screen time is eight hours with most of her most time spent on Snapchat.

A study found that 80 percent of teens admitted staying up most of the night using their cellphones when parents thought they were sleeping. As a result, many teens struggle getting through their school day without dozing off. At least once a week, 28 percent of high school students fall asleep in school, 22 percent fall asleep doing homework and 14 percent arrive late or miss school because they oversleep.

“I’ve seen it happen with friends, especially in the evening when they stay up late scrolling. It’s hard to stop once you start, and next thing you know, it’s 2 a.m. I’ve caught myself doing it too,” sophomore Gabrielle Foltak said. 

Foltak’s screen time ranges from five to six hours daily, with her most used app being Instagram.

Most teens do not realize how long they really spend on their phone until they are asked what their screen time is.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of mindlessly scrolling or checking apps constantly. It adds up, and before you know it, you’re spending a lot of time on your phone instead of doing other things,” Foltak said.

Powering down

Some students have fought the urge to be on their phone and found ways to get off. Some people have found that talking with their family and friends has kept them off certain apps like TikTok.

“When I finally decided to delete it my screen time went down at least an hour or two, and I felt like I was being way more productive,” sophomore Connor Ferguson said. Ferguson’s screen time was around five hours daily and now it’s three.

Other students have found that finding new interests kept them off their phones. Some interests people find are working out, reading and art.

Senior Vincent Talo’s screen time was four hours daily, but he lost an hour or two in the mornings in the gym.

“Instead of spending time on my phone in the morning I go straight to the gym—it makes my mornings feel way more productive than they were,” Talo said.

The most popular apps

1. TikTok

• “The videos on TikTok are short and entertaining so it’s easy not to get bored, it’s also fun to post short clips with friends, for example dance videos,” sophomore Yasanel Schwarzbauer said. On average Schwarzbauer spends five and a half hours on TikTok a day. 
• “I like Tiktok because it is where I go for inspiration on things such as outfits to wear or new products to buy,” sophomore Misri Parikh said. Parikh spends around three hours on TikTok daily.

2. Snapchat

• “I like sending vlogs to my friends and posting on my stories, it is also the only form of communication I use with friends since no one uses Imessages anymore,” sophomore Santiago Vargas said. Vargas spends around four hours on Snapchat every day.
• “I like using Snapchat because it makes me closer to my friends because I can talk to them throughout the day and send photos of what I’m doing,” junior Allyson Leach said. Leach spends around three hours on snap every day.

3. Instagram

• “The reels on Instagram are a lot more funny than TikTok videos, so whenever I want to watch something I go on Instagram,” sophomore Noah Rivera said. Rivera spends around three hours daily on Instagram.
• “Reels never fail to make my day, they are hilarious and it’s nice to get to connect with so many friends in such a fun way,” sophomore Blajia Girges said. Girges spends around three hours a day on instagram.