62.2% of Gen Z Report "Phone Fatigue" — How to Read a 574-Person Survey
In a survey of 574 people aged 15–24 in Japan, 62.2% said they feel "phone fatigue." Here is what they said was causing it, what the 70% already doing something about it chose, and how to read the numbers.
“Phone fatigue” has become a recognisable phrase over the past year. The feeling is easy enough to recognise; the specifics are not. How many people actually feel it, and what exactly are they tired of?
A survey run in February 2026 by SHIBUYA109 lab., a youth marketing research unit in Japan, breaks it down. The numbers are worth reading carefully rather than quoting, so here they are with the caveats attached.
62.2% of 574 young people say they feel it
The survey covered 574 men and women aged 15–24 in Japan, combining an online panel survey with interviews through the research unit’s own network. It was fielded in February 2026 and published on 12 March 2026.
Of those respondents, 62.2% said they feel “phone fatigue.” That more than half say yes is the survey’s headline finding.
The top cause was “time disappearing without noticing”
Among those who recognised the fatigue in themselves, 79.3% said they believed social media was its single biggest cause. Asked what specifically was behind it, the top three answers were:
| Reported cause | Share |
|---|---|
| Time disappears on social media before I notice | 43.1% |
| Scrolling aimlessly before bed costs me sleep | 36.4% |
| New content keeps refreshing as I scroll | 26.3% |
All three describe how time gets spent, not what the content was. “I saw something upsetting” did not make the top of the list.
The survey also reports that among the kinds of attention respondents found stressful, attention directed at themselves was selected most often.
67.6% say they want to cut down
In the same survey, 67.6% said they want to reduce the time they spend on social media — close to seven in ten.
That is the number worth sitting with. Most of the people reporting fatigue already want to cut back. What is missing is not the intention; it is an arrangement in which the time actually goes down.
The most common underlying feeling was “it’s a hassle”
Asked what feelings sat behind the fatigue, the overall ranking was:
- It’s a hassle — 25.8%
- Anxiety — 25.2%
- Lower self-esteem — 24.4%
“It’s a hassle” came first, and all three sit within about a point and a half of each other. The self-critical feeling is not the one that dominates.
For the emotional side of this, see SNS fatigue: what it actually is, and how to get some distance.
More than 70% are already doing something
Over 70% said they do something to get away from their phone. The examples named most often:
- Going for a walk — 20.2%
- Reading — 20.2%
- Going to the cinema — 16.4%
These have a shape in common: all three occupy both hands. The point is not resisting the phone while holding it; it is being somewhere the phone cannot easily be held.
The researchers frame this not as leaving the phone behind but as a chance to recharge before returning to it — an activity for resting, not for quitting.
Four cautions when reading these numbers
- The sample is 574 people aged 15–24 in Japan. It does not transfer to people in their thirties and above.
- It is self-reported. It measures whether people feel tired, not how long they actually used their phones.
- Some questions allowed multiple answers, so the shares do not sum to 100%.
- “Phone fatigue” is left to the respondent to define. There is no hour threshold behind it.
For measured usage figures across age groups, reading a 10,000-person overuse survey sets this alongside a different study, and average daily screen time is covered in how much time people actually spend on their phones.
What to do today (5 minutes)
Two things carry over from this survey: the fatigue people describe is about how time gets spent rather than what they saw, and the people already acting on it picked activities that occupy both hands. That narrows the next step to one thing.
- From the three causes above, pick exactly one that applies to you. Not two.
- If it is “time disappears,” watch the length of a single session this week rather than how often you open the app. If it is the before-bed one, watch only that time of day.
- Put one 30-minute block that occupies both hands into this week — a walk, a bath house, a film, knitting. Something you cannot do one-handed.
- During those 30 minutes, leave the phone in another room or at the bottom of a bag. Do not keep it within reach and rely on willpower.
- At the weekend, check only whether that block happened. Leave total screen time out of it this week.
The 62.2% figure is useful mainly as confirmation that this is not just you. What works after that is not the national share — it is narrowing your own cause down to one.
Sources
- SHIBUYA109 Entertainment / SHIBUYA109 lab., “Survey on Attention Detox among Gen Z” (574 men and women aged 15–24 in Japan, fielded February 2026 via an external online panel plus interviews through SHIBUYA109 lab.’s own network; published 12 March 2026. Cause, feeling and activity questions allowed multiple answers): https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000403.000033586.html (Japanese)
This article summarises published survey results. It is not a medical diagnosis or medical advice.
FAQ
- How many young people in Japan report phone fatigue?
- In SHIBUYA109 lab.'s survey of 574 people aged 15–24 in Japan (February 2026), 62.2% said they feel phone fatigue, and 79.3% of those said social media was its biggest cause.
- What did people name as the main causes of phone fatigue?
- The top answers were time disappearing on social media before they noticed (43.1%), scrolling before bed costing them sleep (36.4%), and content that keeps refreshing as they scroll (26.3%). All three are about how time gets spent, not about what the content was.
- Does the 62.2% figure apply to all ages?
- No. The sample is 574 people aged 15–24 in Japan, so it does not transfer to people in their thirties and above. It is also self-reported — it measures whether people feel tired, not how long they used their phones — and phone fatigue is left to each respondent to define.
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