Social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt is urging parents to tackle children’s phone habits together rather than fight the screen-time battle alone.
“Americans spent 2.5 months of their year on their phones. Yikes!” Haidt wrote on Instagram.
His post included some startling statistics about Americans’ phone habits in 2024:
- Americans check phones 205 times a day (up from 144 times in 2023, a 42% increase)
- We spend 5 hours a day on our phones, equaling 2,5 months of the year
- 4 out of 5 check their phone within 10 minutes of waking up
- 4 out of five check notifications within 5 minutes
- 4 out of 5 feel uneasy leaving their phone at home
“…for kids and teens, these numbers are cause for action,” Haidt wrote.
His proposed response wasn’t another parent trying to outlast an app by sheer willpower. He pointed readers toward collective action and resources for talking with other parents through The TAG Movement.
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That approach fits the work behind his book The Anxious Generation. According to his NYU Stern biography, Haidt has taken his research on phone-based childhood into a movement involving parents, educators, policymakers and young people.
The Reviews.org report, published Jan. 1, 2025, puts average daily use at five hours and one minute. Its methodology says researchers surveyed 1,000 Americans age 18 and older and asked respondents to consult their phones’ screen-time reports for time spent and the frequency of checking.
That makes this an older snapshot of adult habits, not a fresh measurement of children’s behavior in 2026. Nor does the survey, on its own, establish what phone use does to a child’s neurological development.
Haidt’s practical message is broader than that one statistic. If parents want different habits for children, his post suggests they will need conversations with other families — not just stricter rules inside one house.
The TAG Movement’s current recommendations make that approach concrete: delay smartphones until high school, delay social media until age 16, create phone-free schools from bell to bell and give children more real-world play, independence and responsibility.
The organization also advocates prioritizing people and books in education and keeping AI companions away from minors. Those are its recommendations, rather than findings of the adult phone-use survey; they describe the childhood Haidt’s movement wants families and communities to help rebuild.
For a parent, the difference is practical. Instead of making the entire conversation about taking something away, families can discuss what they want children to have more of: face-to-face friendships, time outside, space to read and opportunities to handle responsibility.
Starting with another family may be less daunting than trying to change a whole school at once. Parents can compare their expectations, discuss when smartphones and social accounts become appropriate, and look for activities children can enjoy together without a device at the center.
Adults can also begin by looking at their own screen-time reports, the same tool used in the survey. The conversation is easier to make honest when parents are willing to examine their habits, too.
Haidt’s post turns a startling amount of phone time into a question about what comes next. His answer asks families to stop treating the problem as something each parent must solve alone — and start finding allies.
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