Opal's 2023 Screen Time Report

Today we're excited to release Opal's very first annual Screen Time Report, shining a light on how our digital habits are evolving.

As we head in the new year, we can tell you that the average American will spend between 4 and 5 months looking at their phone in 2024. This is derived from new screen time data we're releasing today, based on the largest sample size to date (N=290,000).

But also:

- What is the average Screen Time around the world?

- How does Screen Time compares across U.S. cities and states?

- How does the size of your phone inform how much time you spend on it?

- What do food diets and digital diets have in common?

- How does our digital diet influence our interpersonal relationships?

- What are some of the measurable health impacts of excessive Screen Time?

- How are different governments addressing Screen Time issues?- How is this growing awareness driving bottom-up actions?

- What role will A.I. play in the evolution of Screen Time?

- What does the future look like?

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Awareness is the first step to change - so we're excited to release data publicly to help others in the community advance science and research in order to help the world focus better in a constantly connected world.

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Get the report slides and video presentation (Antoine Choussat and Kenneth Schlenker walk you through the findings) on https://www.opal.so/screen-time-report

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A few highlights:

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This report is a token of motivation and empowerment for all of us.Screens rule. They empower us every day. But they can also get in the way of what we want to accomplish, and who we want to be...Over a third of our waking hours is spent on our phones. At The Focus Company, we care a lot about how we spend our time.

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For the first time, we provide a robust answer to a simple question that none of the self-reported surveys can accurately answer: what is the actual global average daily screen time?For Opal customers, we observed a global daily average mobile screen time of 5h 08m in 2023 (N=290,000).But… they are saving 1h 23m on average each day using our app, so perhaps a more accurate projection for global mobile screen time is closer to 6h 31m (5h08m + 1h 23m).

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How does screen time compare across different countries, states and US cities?We see the highest phone screen time in Nigeria, Ghana and Kazakhstan, and the lowest in Luxembourg, Denmark and Slovenia.As for U.S. cities, NYC is at the top of the screen time list with 5h40m daily average, followed by Las Vegas and Miami. Most ‘healthy’ screen time cities include Salt Lake City, Portland and Denver.

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Here’s the most evocative way to understand how much time we spend on our phones.Based on 16 daily waking hours, we can see how a daily mobile screen time of ~5h maps out to your time on earth. Days per week, months of the year, and years of your life.It’s the most screenshotted and shared screen in our onboarding process.

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The "Years of Your Life" Projection is the most screenshotted and shared screen in our onboarding process.

How does the size of your phone inform how much time you spend on it?This one is quite simple: the larger your screen, the more time you spend looking at it.The graph displaying respective screen time by device type overlays almost perfectly on the actual devices line-up chef’s kiss.If you own a ‘Max’ or ‘Plus’ sized iPhone, your average daily screen time is 5h 38mIf you own a standard sized iPhone, your average daily screen time is 4h 47mIf you own a smaller iPhone like an ‘SE’ or ‘mini’, your average daily screen time is 4h 34m.

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How does the size of your phone inform how much time you spend on it?If you own a ‘Max’ or ‘Plus’ sized iPhone, your average daily screen time is 5h 38mIf you own a standard sized iPhone, your average daily screen time is 4h 47mIf you own a smaller iPhone like an ‘SE’ or ‘mini’, your average daily screen time is 4h 34m.

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In many ways, your phone is like a fridge.What you put inside your fridge is your responsibility.Same goes for your digital diet, except with the phone, you have a bottomless fridge of free content in your pocket at all times. Both of our food diet and our digital diet are driven by the same neurotransmitter, fighting the same battleground: our brain chemistry and the architecture of our reward system.

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Check this this and more on https://www.opal.so/screen-time-report

‍Including:

- How does our digital diet influence our interpersonal relationships?

- What are some of the measurable health impacts of excessive Screen Time?

- How are different governments addressing Screen Time issues?

- How is this growing awareness driving bottom-up actions?

- What role will A.I. play in the evolution of Screen Time?

- What does the future look like?

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