Average Person Is A Screen Zombie

 

As millions of Americans sit in quarantine this year, many people probably feel their entire lives are spent staring at a computer screen. It turns out they may be right. A survey finds the average American will spend the equivalent of 44 years looking at some kind of digital screen. Researchers say this number has only increased since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The OnePoll survey of 2,000 adults, commissioned by Vision Direct, looked at the average amount of time spent on various devices throughout each day. The results reveal the typical American spends four hours and 30 minutes watching TV, four hours and 33 minutes looking at a smartphone, over three hours using a gaming device, and nearly five hours on a laptop.

All together, Americans are spending a whopping 17 hours and nine minutes looking at digital devices each day, according to the study. Over a full year, that adds up to just over 6,259 hours of total screen time. When to stretch that out over the average 60 years Americans live as adults, you’re looking at 44 years of staring at a screen!

Here’s the real shocking discovery — researchers say those figures are all pre-pandemic! The survey claims since COVID began, Americans are spending over 19 hours a day looking at some type of digital gadget during lockdown. Respondents say most of this extra time to due to boredom. More than three in four adults add they would be lost if they didn’t have their devices during the COVID lockdown.

“We’re lucky to have devices that connect us with the outside world,” says Vision Direct’s Benjamin Dumaine in a statement. “A similar pandemic taking place 30 or 40 years ago would have been people coping with the lack of contact in very different ways.”

The survey find it takes less than 10 minutes for the average American to go from waking up to looking at a screen each morning.