It’s official: Filipinos hold the record for the highest daily average phone screen time in the world, spending almost a third (32.53%) of their day glued to their phones.
By analyzing country-level data for screen time and sleep pattern data based on previous reports, ElectronicsHub conducted a study to get the percentage of hours users spend of their waking moments on the phone screen.
Users in the Philippines are estimated to be awake for 16 hours and 57 minutes on average, with 5 hours and 31 minutes consumed by phone usage. A report in 2022 similarly found that Filipinos are heavy phone users.
The country Brazil is at a very close second, where people spend 32.46 percent of their day on their phones, followed by South Africa at 31.52 percent.
China, the country with the highest number of smartphone users in the world, has users only spending 19.5 percent of their day on mobile devices. Digital curfews and other restrictions may have contributed to the lower percentage. Of all countries analyzed, Japan boasts the lowest mobile screen time at 11 percent.
When combined with time spent on computers, the daily average screen time of Filipinos rises to 54.44 percent. Social media is a major time sink for Filipinos, with 21.91 percent of their awake hours spent scrolling through various platforms and online content. Gaming, on the other hand, accounts for 8.75 percent.
Electronics Hub concluded its study by asking how much screen time is considered excessive or detrimental to one’s overall well-being. Health experts recommend limiting screen time to two hours or less each day.
Back in 2020, the Department of Education established screen time guidelines for students, recommending a maximum of one hour for kindergarteners and up to four hours for students in Grades 9 to 12.