Experts say people who spend hours scrolling without noticing can cut screen time with small daily changes, not a digital detox. The advice is to turn automatic phone use into something more deliberate, because that shift can also ease fatigue and help improve sleep.
The guidance lands now because a June 4, 2026 report on smartphones and social networks described them as products designed to keep people connected for long periods. In that setting, the question of how to reduce screen time has become less about quitting phones and more about using them with purpose.
Marcantonio Spada said digital platforms build in both positive and negative reinforcements as people use them, which helps explain why they can hold attention for so long. Hilda Burke said excessive use often shows up in reports tied to poor sleep, anxiety and difficulty concentrating, the kinds of problems many heavy users already recognize before they ever check a screen-time chart.
The practical steps are simple enough to try today. Experts recommend monitoring time spent on apps, disabling unnecessary notifications, keeping the phone away from the bed, creating screen-free periods and switching the display to grayscale. Android users can track daily habits with Digital Wellbeing, while iPhone users can do the same with Screen Time.
That is the friction at the center of the advice: smartphones and social networks are designed to keep people engaged for long stretches, yet specialists still do not recommend abandoning the cell phone. They are asking users to interrupt the reflex instead, because the habit is usually built one glance, one alert and one endless feed at a time.
What remains unresolved is which change does the most work for the average user. For now, the clearest path is to start with one limit, watch the pattern for a few days and use the phone's own tracking tools to see whether the new routine actually lowers the hours spent scrolling.
