The 81% problem: Why Gen Z desperately wants to disconnect and how they're actually doing it
Lifestyle
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1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 27
By Trevor Mahoney for PeopleWin, Stacker
The 81% problem: Why Gen Z desperately wants to disconnect and how they're actually doing it
Gen Z is a generation that grew up fully online. Social media was practically ever-present, algorithms were already fine-tuned, and notifications were already pinging away. This generation was handed smartphones before their brains were anywhere near fully developed.
However, Gen Z isn’t fully satisfied with this lot in life. PeopleWin examined data from leading sources, including Pew Research Center, news outlets, and more, to examine a startling statistic: around 81% of Gen Zers wish they could disconnect. It’s easier said than done.
The same generation that reports feeling exhausted from excessive digital consumption spends hours every day online, relying on the internet for connection, information, entertainment, and even work.
Fortunately, Gen Z is ready for a change. Dive deep to see just how bad the problem has become and how the predecessors to Generation Alpha are redefining relationships with technology.
How much time are Americans really spending on screens?
While it’s been in headlines for years now, the true scope of the digital problem likely goes over many people’s heads. The average American spends about five hours and one minute on screens each day, according to a 2025 survey of around 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18 or over by Review.org. Out of the four generations studied (baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, Gen Zers), Gen Z leads the charge with an average of four hours and six minutes.
This reflects the reality of society today. Gen Z’s entire social infrastructure lives on their phone in a way that it simply didn’t for older generations. Ditching the phone isn’t just a habit change. Rather, it can feel like social exile.
Why people can’t put their phones down (and the consequences)
Simply throwing the phone out the window isn’t an option. There are, however, strategies that work to reduce screen time, addressing underlying mechanisms rather than just hoping for more willpower.
Variable rewards and dopamine
One reason phones are so difficult to ignore is that the apps within them aren’t designed to be satisfying. They are designed to keep you guessing when you’re on them. Every scroll you make, every refresh, or every inbox check is essentially a small bet. Your brain wonders if something good will be there that time, and it keeps you coming back for more. In pathological gamblers, the anticipation of a reward often produces a bigger dopamine spike than actually receiving the reward. This very same effect happens on a smaller scale when a person is refreshing their social media apps and wondering what might pop up.
Stress, cortisol, and constant alerts
Most people check their phones first thing in the morning, without even realizing it. The action feels neutral or even productive, but the body doesn’t experience it that way. In fact, it’s a negative feedback loop. Evidence reported in The New York Times suggests that while checking your phone constantly may release a little dopamine, you’re more likely to find something stressful waiting for you there.
This can lead to cortisol (the stress hormone) spikes that actually cause more of a desire to check your phone further to find something to make the anxiety go away. This combination of small dopamine hits and increased cortisol, leading to more phone checking, can elevate cortisol levels over time. This is linked to serious health problems, including Type 2 diabetes, fertility issues, high blood pressure, risks of stroke, dementia, and heart attacks.
Attention and ‘brain drain’ impacts
One often overlooked impact of modern technology, particularly affecting younger generations, is the fact that someone doesn’t even need to be using their phone for it to affect cognition. Research from the University of Texas found that the mere presence of a smartphone on your desk can reduce working memory and attentional control. The reason is that a person’s brain is dedicating resources to not actively checking the device, resulting in a compounding effect every day. Each notification interruption or reflexive check can further fragment the sustained focus required for daily tasks.
The rise of digital detox in the US
Fortunately, something has shifted in recent years. Data is beginning to show that a cultural reorientation is underway, with Gen Z leading the charge. In a New York Post survey of 2,000 Americans, 57% of Gen Zers said they are actively making an effort to disconnect from digital devices for their well-being. The only generation that beat them out was millennials at 63%, showing that it is, in fact, the younger generations leading the charge of digital detox. There are four main drivers behind this trend:
1. Growing digital fatigue
The first driver behind digital detox is simply feeling overwhelmed. Many of the young adults trying to unplug or seriously thinking about it are doing so because there is just too much going on digitally for them to keep up with. Wanting to quit and actually quitting are two different things, though. The failure rate of digital detoxing varies, but it’s not a character flaw. It is just a reflection on how deeply embedded these platforms are in daily life.
2. Analog lifestyle and ‘offline’ trends
Interestingly, the appeal of a return to an analog lifestyle and more offline trends has been a driver in digital detoxing. Data from Quad, a marketing company, found that 86% of Gen Z and millennial respondents in a sample survey of just over 2,000 adults stated that feeling a product was essential to the purchase decision.
Going further, 79% indicated that while online shopping was efficient, it lacked the magic of an old-fashioned in-person find. As if this data weren’t telling enough, 78% of respondents said they would choose a completely in-person social life rather than a digital one. With renewed interest in journaling, physical letters, in-person shopping, and other analog activities, the rise in interest in activities beyond doomscrolling can help combat addiction to the digital world.
3. Digital minimalism and declutter culture
One fascinating way in which the digital detox trend is being ushered along is via aesthetics. More and more smartphone users value digital minimalism and declutter culture, cleaning up countless notifications on devices or avoiding the temptation to add apps to a phone. The simple trend of removing apps from the home screen and silencing notifications actually reduces the urge to check a device, making a digital detox far easier.
4. Corporate and workplace angle
Finally, return-to-office trends have assisted greatly with digital detox post-COVID. Per Built In, a job search board, the share of Fortune 100 companies requiring full-time, in-person work has jumped from 5% to 54%, as of 2024. It’s a simple fact that it’s harder to check your phone constantly with a boss over your shoulder than if you were working from home. As more and more Gen Zers begin to enter the workforce as full-time, in-person employees, the hours spent in the office will help reduce the hours they otherwise would have been spending on their phones.
Wanting to detox from a device and actually doing it are very different things. There are several strategies anyone can implement to achieve this goal.
Strategy #1: Phone‑free mornings to protect your stress levels
The first hour of a person’s day is probably the most important time to protect. Cortisol typically peaks first thing in the morning, either right before waking or in the hour afterwards, and while it is affectionately nicknamed the stress hormone, it’s not inherently stressful. Cortisol is actually a signal of alertness from the body. It peaks in the morning to ensure that your prefrontal cortex is fresh, your cognitive capacity is at its highest, and you have what researchers call “morning willpower reserves.” This just means that as the day goes on and you tire, you gradually have less decision-making capacity.
However, too much cortisol can put you past the tipping point of the peak and make you feel stressed. This is why you should not touch your phone for at least the first half hour to an hour after waking up. The best way to do this is to buy a good old-fashioned alarm clock.
Once you wake up, instead of going on your phone, get out of bed and move. Make a coffee and get some sun on your face. Jump in the shower and refresh your body. Nothing needs to be elaborate, but you should be making a concerted effort to allow your nervous system to wake up without immediately bombarding it with a multitude of tabs.
Strategy #2: Smarter app limits, not just fewer notifications
For some, turning off notifications isn’t enough to reduce the temptation to check a phone. It’s simply the first step of a longer-term solution. What can help more, however, is using app-level time limits that require real effort to override. iOS users can make use of the Screen Time feature to restrict apps or categories, and Samsung users can use Digital Wellbeing to do the same. Both features are beneficial because they require a password or other type of intervention to override, which stops reflex checks.
This advice isn’t just theory either. Frontiers, a publisher of peer-reviewed articles, ran a study focused on two groups: one where parents didn’t intervene with their 2- to 5-year-old children’s screen time and one where they did. It was found that intervention led to reduced screen time post-study and higher levels of physical activity for the children.
Strategy #3: Make your phone boring
Despite sounding too simple to work, it actually sort of does. In an independent test reported by Healthline, one person noted switching a phone to grayscale instead of color felt less rewarding and resulted in a drop in average weekly usage time to below three hours. The mechanism behind it is straightforward: grayscale reduces the visual gratification of the screen, making image-based apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Netflix less compelling.
While this may not work for everyone, and can be genuinely annoying when needing color-dependent tasks, it can be helpful for a short reset. Other low-effort design tweaks worth trying to make your phone boring include setting a passcode instead of Face ID, keeping your home screen to a single page without social apps, and setting your phone to auto-lock after just 30 seconds.
Designing a sustainable digital detox plan for US life
Strategy articles are full of advice that sounds reasonable at first, yet falls apart by Monday morning. This five-step grounded framework may be more sustainable for the average person:
Step 1. Define your ‘why’ and concrete targets: Vague intentions don’t stick, so identify behavior that bothers you most. Whether it’s doomscrolling at night, checking phones at meals, or first-thing-in-the-morning checks, start there and set attainable goals.
Step 2. Pick 1-2 starter levers: When setting goals, don’t overhaul everything at once. Start with small goals first that compound into larger achievements.
Step 3. Create screen‑free zones and windows: Designate certain areas of your home or frequented spots as “no phone” zones. This will remove the decision of checking a device entirely, which will decrease your cognitive load.
Step 4. Pair less screen time with richer offline inputs: The gap that would have been earmarked for scrolling needs to be filled by your brain, so do something better instead. Read a book, take a walk, go meet up with a friend, or, quite literally, anything other than checking your phone.
Step 5. Track and iterate: Finally, make use of the built-in screen time feature on your phone, not as a source of shame but as data. Set a weekly check-in to see how you’re doing on screen time and make a note of anything that needs to change.
Build a digital detox strategy that works for you
The 81% problem isn’t really a phone problem, but rather a design problem. Platforms are built to be as sticky as possible and handed to a generation that never knew anything else. Gen Z didn’t create this situation, but they’re increasingly the ones trying to solve it. With cultural trends moving towards analog and digital detoxing, it’ll hopefully only be a matter of time until doomscrolling is no longer the norm.
This story was produced by PeopleWin and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
