Survey Finds This Type Of Person Is Surprisingly Most Likely To Be Chronically Offline
andreonegin | Shutterstock There’s no doubt that we live in a digital age in which there’s a smart device or an app for almost every task you might need to complete. Now, with the evolution of AI, technology can do more in our lives than it ever has before. Some people are embracing this and spending as much time online as possible.
However, there’s also an increasing number of people who aren’t entirely comfortable with how digitized life has become. It’s turning into such a trend that some are choosing to go analog and reject the use of technology altogether. You may naturally assume that it’s older people who are leading the charge to go offline, but that’s not really the case.
Survey finds that younger generations are actually the most likely to be chronically offline.
A new survey conducted by Talker Research for ThriftBooks uncovered some interesting information about who’s most likely to take time away from their screens. Although young people have a reputation for being very active on social media as they grew up alongside its development, they’re actually the most likely to spend time offline.
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Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans and found that 50% were intentionally making time to disconnect from their digital lives. This was most common among Gen Z and millennials, who chose to go offline at rates of 63% and 57%, respectively. Meanwhile, only 42% of Gen X and 29% of boomers said the same.
54% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials also said they preferred to have “designated screen-free time,” compared to just 33% of Gen X and 22% of boomers. Of course, the fact that older generations are probably less likely to spend a lot of time online in the first place probably plays a role in these numbers, but it’s still pretty intriguing to note.
It seems that people are actually becoming more connected by disconnecting online.
Proponents of social media tend to point to the way it can make you feel more connected to your loved ones, which is true, as confirmed by Frances Dalomba, LICSW, at Brown University. However, 70% of the survey respondents reported that they felt disconnected and lonely when they spent more time online.
The top three reasons for spending less time online were increased productivity, feeling like they could really be there for their loved ones, and being more aware of what was happening in their lives. Additionally, participants noted that spending a greater amount of time online led to them feeling overwhelmed, anxious, irritable, and unsatisfied.
Excessive screen time is leading to digital burnout, which is driving people offline.
According to a report from AllConnect, towards the end of 2024, the average person spent six hours and 38 minutes online every day. That’s far from surprising. A vast majority of jobs are done mostly, if not entirely, online now, meaning working adults spend almost the whole day in front of a screen. Then there’s all the time they spend scrolling on social media outside of work.
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All of this is creating a feeling of what experts call “digital burnout.” Shift’s 2026 State of Browsing Report found that 62% of people were experiencing digital burnout on a recurring basis. This can lead someone to feel anxiety over doing work online before it even happens, have difficulty focusing, or even be “stuck in a response loop” that causes them to reach for their phone without realizing it, said former Forbes contributor Rachel Montanez.
As the internet takes over life more than it ever has before, people are also noticing the subtle ways that they’re getting fed up with it. From not wanting to spend the whole evening on their phone after they were online at work all day to seeking in-person connection,more people are looking for an antidote to the digital burnout they’re experiencing. For younger generations, who are perhaps most susceptible, that looks like logging off altogether.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
