Is your smartphone impacting your mental health?

Here’s what the data says about screentime – and the benefits of cutting it down.

We believe the time is overdue to talk about phones, social media, mental health, and what can be done better to make more positive impacts on how we feel and improve our overall wellbeing. That’s why we’ve kicked off The Better Phone Project – check out the project here if you haven’t already.

In this post, we’ll delve into the psychological effects that excessive smartphone use can have on our overall mental health and talk about some tips on digital wellbeing and how to maintain a healthy relationship with your phone.

1) Is your smartphone making you anxious?

Our social media feeds seem to know how to keep us scrolling. It can even get to a point where parting from our smartphone can cause a sense of anxiety. If you’ve experienced this, you’re not alone: using GWI, an audience insights platform, we found that 36% of 16 to 24-year-olds believe they spend too much time on social media and 28% of 16 to 24-year-olds describe themselves as prone to anxiety.¹

Here’s the thing: it’s doesn’t have to be this way. For many of us, the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) can turn into the Joy of Missing Out (JoMO) – and after a while, it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out at all. And these statistics support this – because while many young people feel that social media is taking up too much of their time, there is an increasing trend in cutting that screentime down. Again, using GWI, we also found that 21% of the same group say they are using social media less than they used to.¹

2) Gen Z know that there is a problem

With so many social media platforms out there these days, chances are, you’ve got at least one on your smartphone. And the content hooks you in from the start – there’s always something that will keep you glued to the screen, right?

But what are these apps doing to your mental health? It’s a big question and it’s not easy to nail down a definitive answer – but we’ve found a few data points that lead us to believe that the effects are not insignificant.

Looking at the findings from GWI, we found that those in the Gen Z age group are 24% more likely than average to feel that social media causes them anxiety.¹ We also found from GWI data that 16 to 24-year-olds have taken action to reduce smartphone screen time within the last month.²

How we think, feel, and act plays a part in how we handle stress, interact with our family and friends, and shape our ability to make healthy choices. While we can’t always draw definitive conclusions from data points like these, they do tell us that many young people have identified a link between social media use and their own feelings of anxiety.

3) Parents have noticed the impact on their kids

Connecting with others online can be fun, and the videos and stories on your social media feeds are often great for a laugh – but there can be too much of a good thing. Sometimes, juggling the endless stream of content and notifications can be quite stressful and impact how we feel – it’s a trend parents have seen firsthand with almost half reporting that they feel mobile phone use has affected their child’s personality.³

A global survey commissioned by HMD of 10,000 parents also found that 54% wished they had waited longer to give their child a smartphone and 65% have concerns about their child’s phone use and the impact on their mental wellbeing.³

More parents are grappling with the balance between connectivity and the potential risks associated with early smartphone use. Young adults have drawn links to excessive screentime and feelings of anxiety, but that’s not something we can expect children to realise for themselves. To help achieve that balance for children, parents must decide how to approach the topic. Do you delay giving a smartphone to your child(ren) for as long as possible? Or are solutions like content restrictions and setting limits on screentime enough? As a parent, how do you strike that balance of letting them learn from positive / educational online games or video content while stopping short of forming unhealthy digital habits? These are not easy questions and there’s a lot to wrestle with as a parent.

4) Finding balance with screen time

So how do we find the right balance with screen time and social media use? When used without considering healthy digital habits, smartphones and social media draw us in and can feel overwhelming and like the centre of our daily lives. But at their best, these powerful devices in our pocket really can be extremely useful in the connected world we live in – from helping us navigate from point A to B, making payments and buying transit tickets, to helping with homework and assisting with day-today tasks and life admin.

So, what can we do to strike the balance? How can we reduce screentime but keep access to all the benefits that being connected and digital services have to offer?

Making time for hobbies, socialising and exercise is important for adults and children alike. That comes back to JoMO – the Joy of Missing Out comes from the joy we get from having more experiences and connecting with people in the real world while missing out on excessive screentime.

Feature phones or “dumb phones” offer one good alternative. They keep us reachable and give us some basic features and functionality, but also limit our connectivity and encourage us to spend more time engaged in the real world rather than with our phone’s screen. There are now also options available on smartphones to make them less engaging, put time limits on specific apps, and control and limit notifications, etc. These are all useful tools and when it comes to finding balance with screen time, every small action we take helps get us one step closer towards the right level of balance.

5) Digital wellbeing and smartphone use

You may have already decided that you want to reclaim your attention by managing the ping, ping of notifications. One important first step to more balanced smartphone use is understanding your screen time and social media app activity over time – for example, average screen time, number of screen unlocks, and average app usage per day. The good news is that modern Android smartphones come with a Digital Wellbeing menu – it shows you your smartphone usage at a glance and gives you tools to help limit time spent on certain apps.

Dumb phones; flip phones; The Better Phone?

So, is there a perfect tech alternative to better protect our mental health? There are several solutions and alternatives out there, including dumb phones and flip phones. For some smartphones with limitations are an option. But we’ve also understood that many haven’t found the right combination of features and functionality to fit their needs – a phone that ticks all of the boxes for what they’re looking for, without anything else.

And that’s one of the core reasons why we’ve started The Better Phone Project. Launched in July 2024, our aim is to collaborate with parents and anyone interested in helping to produce alternative devices to smartphones. The aim is to tackle the impact of smartphone use and social media and create the choice needed to find balance. If you’re interested in being involved in co-creating solutions that help us all achieve the right balance, check out the project and how to get involved.