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Technology Addiction Statistics 2026

There is no single number for technology addiction, because it isn’t one diagnosis. A 2022 meta-analysis put the global rate of internet addiction at 14.22% and smartphone addiction at 26.99%, and estimates shift a lot depending on how addiction is measured. In the U.S., 53% of adults say they spend too much time on their smartphone, and four in 10 teens say they’re online almost constantly.

By the CITA Editorial TeamUpdated October 4, 202614 min read
Technology Addiction Statistics 2024

Fast Facts About Technology Addiction

  • A 2022 meta-analysis of 504 studies in 64 countries estimated that 14.22% of people have internet addiction and 26.99% have smartphone addiction.[1]
  • 53% of U.S. adults say they spend too much time on their smartphone, including 70% of adults ages 18 to 29.[2]
  • Four in 10 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they’re online almost constantly, and 97% go online every day.[3]
  • Problematic social media use among adolescents in Europe, Central Asia and Canada rose from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022.[4]
  • About half of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 (50.4%) had 4 or more hours of daily screen time outside schoolwork in 2021 to 2023.[5]
  • Gaming disorder, ICD-11 code 6C51, has a pooled prevalence of 3.3% across studies worldwide, or 2.4% in representative samples.[6][7]

How Many People Are Addicted to Technology?

“Technology addiction” is an umbrella term, not a diagnosis. In the World Health Organization’s ICD-11, the only named conditions listed under disorders due to addictive behaviors are gambling disorder (6C50) and gaming disorder (6C51).[7] The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5-TR includes gambling disorder as its only behavioral addiction, and it lists internet gaming in an appendix as a condition that needs further study.[8]

So researchers measure digital addiction with screening questionnaires, and the scale and cutoff they choose move the answer. A 2022 meta-analysis pooled 504 studies covering 2,123,762 people in 64 countries:[1]

Type of digital addictionPooled global prevalence
Smartphone addiction26.99%
Social media addiction17.42%
Internet addiction14.22%
Cybersex addiction8.23%
Gaming addiction6.04%

These estimates draw on studies published before October 31, 2021.[1] The categories overlap, since one person can be counted in several of them, so they can’t be added together.

Rates were higher in the Eastern Mediterranean region and in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Males had a higher risk of internet and gaming addiction. Digital addiction trended upward over the past two decades and worsened sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

Internet Addiction Statistics

Internet addiction had a pooled global prevalence of 14.22% in the 2022 meta-analysis, with a 95% confidence interval of 12.90% to 15.65%.[1] Being online a lot is not the same as being addicted, but the scale of use is the backdrop:

  • About 6 billion people, roughly three-quarters of the world’s population, used the internet in 2025, while 2.2 billion remained offline.[9]
  • Across 24 countries surveyed in 2025, a median of 28% of adults said they’re online almost constantly. That ranged from 13% in Nigeria to 56% in Japan.[10]
  • In the U.S., 90% of adults use the internet daily, and 41% say they’re online almost constantly, including 63% of adults ages 18 to 29.[11]

Smartphone Addiction Statistics

In 2025, 91% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone, and 98% owned a cellphone of some kind.[12] In a Pew Research Center survey of 9,750 U.S. adults, conducted May 26 to June 1, 2026:[2]

  • 53% said they spend too much time on their smartphone, 36% said the amount is about right, and 3% said too little.
  • 26% said they use their smartphone almost constantly, and 60% said several times a day.
  • 41% said their smartphone hurts how much sleep they get, while 5% said it helps.

Younger adults feel it most:[2]

AgeSpend too much time on their phoneUse their phone almost constantlySay it hurts their sleep
18 to 2970%42%62%
30 to 4964%33%52%
50 to 6449%21%36%
65 and older25%9%14%

Parents of young children feel it, too. In a 2025 survey, 65% of parents of children 12 and younger said they spend too much time on their smartphone.[13]

Feeling that you use your phone too much isn’t the same as addiction. Studies that use addiction scales report a wide range:

  • Worldwide: 26.99% for smartphone addiction, pooled across studies published before late 2021.[1]
  • Trend: 37.1% for problematic smartphone use, pooled across 109 studies from 2012 to 2022 covering 97,748 people, with prevalence rising over time.[14]
  • Children and young people: a median of 23.3%, or about one in four, across 41 studies of 41,871 young people.[15]

Teens notice it in themselves. In a 2023 Pew survey, 38% of U.S. teens said they spend too much time on their smartphone, and 44% said not having their phone makes them anxious at least sometimes. Even more, 72%, said being without it often or sometimes makes them feel peaceful.[16]

Social Media Addiction Statistics

Problematic social media use means addiction-like symptoms: trouble controlling use, withdrawal when not using it, neglecting other activities, and negative consequences in daily life.[4] How common it is depends on who is counted and how:

  • Adolescents: 11% of young people ages 11, 13 and 15 in 44 countries and regions across Europe, Central Asia and Canada showed problematic use in 2022, up from 7% in 2018. Girls reported it more than boys, 13% vs. 9%.[4]
  • By definition: across 63 samples from 32 nations, pooled estimates were 5% with the strictest classifications, 13% with severe-level cutoffs and 25% with moderate-level cutoffs.[17]
  • By culture: the same review found a pooled 31% in collectivist nations, compared with 14% in individualist nations.[17]
  • Worldwide: 17.42% for social media addiction in the 2022 meta-analysis.[1]

Not every analysis finds a rise. A 2023 meta-analysis of 139 samples measured with the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale found no overall increase over seven years or after the pandemic began, except in low-income countries.[18]

Among U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 in fall 2025, about three-quarters used YouTube every day, 61% used TikTok daily and 55% used Instagram daily. About one in five (21%) said they’re on TikTok almost constantly, up from 16% in 2022, and 36% used at least one of five major platforms almost constantly.[3]

Other national surveys point the same way. In the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 77.0% of U.S. high school students used social media at least several times a day, including 81.8% of female and 72.9% of male students.[19] A 2023 Gallup survey found U.S. teens averaged 4.8 hours a day across seven social media platforms, and 51% spent at least four hours a day.[20]

Teens are uneasy about it. In Pew’s 2024 survey, 45% of teens said they spend too much time on social media, up from 27% in 2023 and 36% in 2022. And 48% said social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, while 14% said it has a negative effect on them personally.[21] The guide on how social media affects teens covers the research and warning signs.

Video Game Addiction Statistics

Gaming disorder has its own diagnosis in ICD-11, code 6C51, with predominantly online and predominantly offline subtypes.[7] WHO defines it as impaired control over gaming, giving gaming increasing priority over other interests and daily activities, and continuing or escalating gaming despite negative consequences. The pattern must cause significant impairment and would normally be evident for at least 12 months.[22]

WHO notes that studies suggest gaming disorder affects only a small proportion of people who play digital or video games.[22] Pooled estimates vary by group:

GroupEstimateSource
Studies worldwide, 61 studies, 227,665 people in 29 countries3.3% pooled; 2.4% in representative samples; 1.4% after adjusting for publication biasKim et al., 2022[6]
Young adults ages 18 to 35, 93 studies6.1% pooled; 8.1% in samples of gamers onlyGisbert-Pérez et al., 2026[23]
Children and teens ages 6 to 18, 19 studies10% pooled, with individual studies ranging from about 1% to over 25%Barboza et al., 2026[24]
Adolescents ages 11, 13 and 15 in Europe, Central Asia and Canada, 202212% at risk of problematic gaming (boys 16%, girls 7%)WHO/Europe, 2024[4]

Read the higher numbers with care. Studies apply DSM-5 or ICD-11 criteria using different questionnaires, and smaller studies, younger samples and lower-quality studies tend to report higher rates.[6][24]

In the U.S., 85% of teens play video games, and 41% play at least once a day, according to a 2023 Pew survey. Boys are far more likely than girls to play daily, 61% vs. 22%. Overall, 14% of teens say they spend too much time gaming, rising to 22% of boys, compared with 6% of girls. And 41% of teens who play say gaming has hurt their sleep.[25]

Online Pornography Statistics

Compulsive pornography use is often grouped with technology addictions.[8] There is no “porn addiction” diagnosis, but ICD-11 includes compulsive sexual behavior disorder (6C72), which may cover compulsive pornography use.[7][26]

In a 2019 study of a nationally representative sample of 2,075 U.S. adult internet users, roughly 11% of men and 3% of women agreed at least somewhat with the statement “I am addicted to pornography.” Those feelings were most strongly linked with being male, being younger, religiousness, believing one’s own use is morally wrong, and using more pornography.[26]

Across studies worldwide, the pooled prevalence of cybersex addiction was 8.23%.[1]

Kids’ and Teens’ Screen Time

Screen time on its own is not a diagnosis, and the American Psychiatric Association says there is no specific number of hours that is problematic.[8] Still, the hours add up:

Age groupDaily screen timeData year and source
Under 21 hour 3 minutes2024, Common Sense Media[27]
2 to 42 hours 8 minutes2024, Common Sense Media[27]
5 to 83 hours 28 minutes2024, Common Sense Media[27]
Tweens, 8 to 125 hours 33 minutes of entertainment screen use2021, Common Sense Media[28]
Teens8 hours 39 minutes of entertainment screen use2021, Common Sense Media[28]
12 to 1750.4% had 4 or more hours on a typical weekday, not counting schoolwork2021 to 2023, National Center for Health Statistics[5]

Older teens log more. Among teens ages 15 to 17, 55.0% had 4 or more hours of daily screen time, compared with 45.6% of those ages 12 to 14.[5]

Devices arrive early. By age 2, 40% of children have their own tablet, and by age 8, nearly 1 in 4 have their own cellphone.[27] In a 2025 Pew survey, 23% of parents of children 12 and younger said their child has their own smartphone, rising to roughly six in 10 parents of 11- and 12-year-olds.[13]

Most parents of children 12 and younger (85%) say their child watches YouTube, including 51% who say their child watches daily.[13] For age-by-age limits, see screen time by age.

Teens are rarely offline. In fall 2025, 97% of U.S. teens used the internet daily, and four in 10 said they’re online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade earlier. AI chatbots are the newest habit: 64% of teens use them, including about three in 10 who do so every day.[3]

Technology Use, Sleep and Mental Health

Most of this research is observational. It shows that heavy use and poor sleep or mood tend to go together, not that one causes the other. A smaller set of studies follows people over time or tests changes in randomized trials.

Sleep

  • 41% of U.S. adults say their smartphone hurts how much sleep they get, including 62% of adults ages 18 to 29.[2]
  • 45% of U.S. teens say social media hurts the amount of sleep they get, and 41% of teens who play video games say gaming does.[21][25]
  • In a 2019 meta-analysis of 23 studies with 35,684 participants, people with internet addiction had 2.20 times the odds of sleep problems, and they slept less.[29]
  • In a study of 10,588 12-year-olds, owning a smartphone was associated with higher odds of insufficient sleep (odds ratio 1.62), depression (1.31) and obesity (1.40).[30]

Problematic social media use has also been associated with less sleep and later bedtimes.[4]

Mental Health

  • U.S. teens with 4 or more hours of daily screen time were more likely than teens with less to have had anxiety symptoms in the past two weeks (27.1% vs. 12.3%) and depression symptoms (25.9% vs. 9.5%).[5]
  • High school students who used social media at least several times a day were more likely to report persistent sadness or hopelessness, 42.6% vs. 31.9%.[19]
  • Across 41 studies, problematic smartphone use in children and young people was linked with higher odds of depression (odds ratio 3.17), anxiety (3.05) and poor sleep quality (2.60).[15]
  • In a study that followed 11,876 children from ages 9 and 10 for three years, a rise in a child’s own social media use was followed by more depressive symptoms the next year. Depressive symptoms did not predict later social media use.[31]

What Experiments Show

  • Across 10 randomized trials with 1,491 participants, cutting back on or stopping social media reduced depressive symptoms, a small but significant effect (g = 0.25 after adjusting for publication bias).[32]
  • In a 2025 randomized trial of 467 people, blocking mobile internet on their phones for two weeks improved mental health, well-being and sustained attention, and 91% improved on at least one of those outcomes.[33]

Cutting Back, Getting Help and Treatment

Many people are already trying to cut back:

  • 45% of U.S. adults tried to cut back on their smartphone time in the past 12 months. Of those, 25% said they were extremely or very successful, 52% somewhat successful, and 23% not too or not at all successful.[2]
  • 44% of U.S. teens say they’ve cut back on social media, and 38% have cut back on video games.[21][25]

Cutting back is harder than it sounds. In the phone-blocking trial, only 119 of the 467 people who agreed to block mobile internet, or 25.5%, kept the block on for at least 10 of the 14 days.[33] For practical steps, see how to stop doomscrolling.

Treatment research is still young. For gaming disorder, a meta-analysis of 12 studies of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) found large drops in symptoms (g = 0.92) and depression (g = 0.80) right after treatment, but the gains weren’t significant at follow-up.[34]

A 2025 umbrella review of meta-analyses found only weak evidence for current digital addiction treatments, including CBT, group counseling and exercise, and called for larger, better-designed studies.[35]

The American Psychiatric Association says a first step is assessment and counseling from a mental health professional. CBT is commonly used, and support groups, including 12-step programs, and family therapy help many people recover.[8] If screens are crowding out sleep, school, work or relationships, a free self-assessment test can help you take stock, and the therapist directory lists clinicians who treat technology-related problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people are addicted to technology?

There’s no single figure, because technology addiction covers several behaviors. A 2022 meta-analysis estimated global rates of 14.22% for internet addiction, 26.99% for smartphone addiction, 17.42% for social media addiction and 6.04% for gaming addiction, with wide variation by measure and region.[1]

What percentage of people are addicted to their phones?

Studies using addiction scales put smartphone addiction at 26.99% worldwide.[1] In the U.S., 53% of adults say they spend too much time on their smartphone, which is a self-assessment, not a diagnosis.[2]

How common is social media addiction?

Among adolescents in Europe, Central Asia and Canada, 11% showed problematic social media use in 2022, up from 7% in 2018.[4] Global estimates range from 5% to 25%, depending on how addiction is defined.[17]

How much time do teens spend on screens?

About half of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 (50.4%) reported 4 or more hours of screen time on a typical weekday, not counting schoolwork, in 2021 to 2023.[5] Common Sense Media’s 2021 census found teens averaged 8 hours 39 minutes of entertainment screen use a day.[28]

Is technology addiction a real diagnosis?

Gaming disorder is a diagnosis in ICD-11, code 6C51, and gambling disorder is recognized in both ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR. Internet, smartphone and social media addiction are not separate diagnoses in either manual, though clinicians do treat problematic technology use.[7][8]

Does screen time cause depression?

Heavy use and depression often go together, but most studies can’t show cause. Stronger designs point to some effect: a three-year study of 11,876 children found that rising social media use was followed by more depressive symptoms, and randomized trials found that cutting back on social media reduced depressive symptoms.[31][32]

How many people have gaming disorder?

A 2022 meta-analysis of 61 studies put the pooled prevalence at 3.3%, or 2.4% in representative samples.[6] WHO says gaming disorder affects only a small proportion of people who play.[22]

Sources

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