Screen Time Analysis
Screen Time Analysis is a self-assessment tool, free of judgement, that lets you review your daily screen use through questions about duration and context.
Discussion of screen time usually runs in the language of guilt; yet the same two hours can be spent in a language-learning app or in an endless feed that steals from sleep. This tool does not judge duration on its own; alongside the question of how much, it adds what for, when, and how it makes you feel. The aim is to let you see your habits with an outside eye, and to leave the decision about whether you want to change to you.
Tool
Frequently asked questions
How many hours of screen time a day is normal?
There is no threshold that holds for everyone; the total for someone whose work is at a screen naturally differs from someone whose is not. What research points to is not so much the total duration as the quality of the use, and whether it leaves room for sleep, movement and face-to-face relationships.
My phone has its own screen time report — why would I need this tool?
The phone’s report measures duration but does not interpret it. This assessment adds context to the duration: which use serves you, and which simply carries on out of habit? Using the two together — the phone’s numbers and the questions here — gives the fullest picture.
My result came out as “worth thinking about” — is that bad?
No; that wording is not a warning label but the sign of a pattern worth your attention. What you do about it is your decision; the profile only supplies the raw material for it.
Can I use it for my child’s screen time?
The tool was designed for adults assessing their own use. Screen use in children carries different dynamics depending on age; for that, child development resources and, where needed, specialists are the more appropriate place to turn.
Method and formula
The assessment is a scored self-report questionnaire: alongside your estimated daily duration, you are asked about your purposes (work, communication, entertainment, aimless scrolling), the hours you use screens (especially before sleep), how often you are interrupted, and how you feel afterwards. Answers are scored by dimension and the result is presented as an “awareness profile”: which dimensions look balanced, and which are worth thinking about. The tool does not diagnose and does not use clinical labels such as “addiction”; your answers stay in your browser.
How to read the result
What should stand out in the profile is the patterns rather than the total duration: the share taken by aimless scrolling, night-time use spilling into sleep, the hand reaching for the phone without noticing. If you want to change something, the most effective start is usually to target a single pattern; one environmental adjustment, such as not taking the phone into the bedroom, gives a more lasting result than ten decisions that call on willpower. Repeating the profile a few weeks apart makes the change visible.
Limits
- The assessment relies on self-report; people generally underestimate their screen time.
- The profile is not a clinical assessment; it cannot detect or rule out a disorder related to technology use.
- The questions scan general patterns; interpretation differs for people whose work involves heavy screen use.
- The result is a snapshot of the period you answered for; a holiday or a busy week at work changes the picture temporarily.
Safety boundary
This tool is not a diagnostic instrument. If your screen use is markedly affecting your sleep, your work or your relationships and does not change through your own efforts, talking to a mental health professional is not a weakness but a sensible step.
Calculator and tool methodology · Nothing you type is sent to a server; results stay in your browser.