Most smartphone users (60%) say it wouldn’t be hard to give up their phone for a day, but few are willing to be untethered for much longer than that, according to a new USA Today|SurveyMonkey poll. A majority (67%) say it would be hard to give up their smartphone for a week, and even more (79%) say it would be hard to give it up for a month or longer.
Nearly eight in 10 smartphone owners (78%) rely on their phones to do everyday tasks such as navigating, banking, using social media, and checking the news.
Just under half of smartphone owners (47%) say they’ve intentionally tried to cut back on the amount they use their smartphones. Those who’ve tried have mostly been successful: 82% say they were either very or somewhat successful at cutting back their smartphone usage. But, just 43% of those who’ve tried to cut back on their smartphone usage say that doing so improved their mental state—that’s a bit fewer than the 50% who say it had no effect on them, but much higher than the six percent who said cutting back worsened their mental state.
Most people who tried to cut back did so by simply going “cold turkey” (39%) or by deleting, signing out of, or moving apps to make them harder to access on their phones (also 39%). Nearly one in five people say they’ve intentionally traveled to a location where they knew they wouldn’t get phone service (19%) or used an app to track their phone usage (18%). Almost no one (two percent) has attended a formal digital detox program.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
Question text:
How difficult would it be to give up your smartphone for a day?
How difficult would it be to give up your smartphone for a week?
How difficult would it be to give up your smartphone for a month or longer?
How much do you rely on your smartphone to do everyday tasks such as navigating, banking, using social media, and checking the news?
Have you ever intentionally tried to cut back on the amount you use your smartphone to do everyday tasks?
How successful were you at cutting back on your smartphone usage?
How did cutting back your smartphone usage affect your mental state?
Which of the following, if any, have you done to intentionally cut back on your smartphone usage? (Select all that apply.)
What, if anything, did you miss out on when you cut back your smartphone usage?
What everyday tasks do you use your smartphone to do most often?
*consumers
