The smartphone has become an integral part of many people’s everyday lives in Germany. According to a survey by the digital association Bitkom, the average usage time is around 150 minutes per day. What the representative study says about our smartphone usage behavior.
The younger generation, especially those aged 16 to 29, spend the most time on their smartphones, with an average of 182 minutes per day. For 30 to 49 year olds it is 158 minutes per day. The 50-64 age group uses their smartphone an average of 148 minutes per day, while those over 65 still spend a significant 96 minutes per day on their device.
Dr. Sebastian Klöß, Head of Consumer Technology at Bitkom, emphasizes the importance of the smartphone in everyday life: It is not only used for information and entertainment, but is also an important means of communication that connects people with friends and family and offers support in many situations.
However, the use of smartphones is not just limited to making phone calls. Although an average of 29 minutes per day is spent on voice calls, there are also differences between age groups. The youngest users, those aged 16 to 29, spend the longest time on the phone with an average of 36 minutes. The group of 30 to 49 year olds follows with 31 minutes, 50 to 64 year olds use 27 minutes and seniors aged 65 and over use their smartphones to make phone calls an average of 17 minutes per day.
In addition, the study shows the central role that smartphones play in the social structure. More than half of those surveyed (55 percent) said they had lost many friends without their smartphone. And: A large majority of 83 percent can no longer imagine life without this technical aid.
Modern smartphones offer appropriate functions to monitor and, if necessary, control your own screen time. Since Android 9 Pie, Google has allowed users to track their daily smartphone usage. Apple also created this option with the introduction of “Screen Time” on iOS devices. In order to use this function on an Android device, you must first check whether the device is running Android 9 or a newer version.
This function can then be activated in the settings, although the exact name varies depending on the smartphone manufacturer. For example, at Google it is called “Digital Wellbeing”, at Samsung “Digital Wellbeing” and at Huawei “Digital Balance”. This feature provides a detailed overview of the usage time of individual apps and also shows how often the device has been unlocked.
