Digital Fatigue and Energy Data 2025
This page summarises findings from the Human Clarity Institute’s Digital Life 2025 dataset on digital fatigue, energy depletion, online regret, and recovery after prolonged online exposure. The dataset includes 1,003 valid responses across six English-speaking countries and examines how digitally mediated environments influence tiredness, overwhelm, restoration, and perceived mental energy.
Across the findings, one pattern appears repeatedly: extended online activity often leaves attention active but unresolved. Many respondents describe feeling tired, mentally drained, or emotionally depleted after long periods online — not because they exerted intense effort, but because attention remained continuously engaged without meaningful recovery or closure.
See the full system explanation:
How online life drains — and restores — human energy
View the Digital Life 2025 Dataset
What the data shows
Four behavioural patterns stand out in this dataset. First, high digital exposure is now routine for most respondents. Second, long online time is much more commonly associated with depletion than restoration. Third, regret about time online is widespread. Finally, most respondents attempt to self-regulate when overwhelmed, suggesting that many people already recognise digital overload as emotionally or mentally costly.
Across the findings, fatigue appears less connected to effort alone and more connected to prolonged stimulation without meaningful resolution or recovery. Many respondents describe remaining mentally active long after online sessions end, suggesting that digital fatigue may involve open-ended attention rather than simple overwork.
Regret time online at least sometimes
Report regretting the amount of time they spend online sometimes, often, or always.
Feel tired or exhausted after long online time
Report feeling tired or exhausted on days when they spend more than four hours online.
Spend more than 4 hours online per day
Report typical daily online time of more than four hours, showing that prolonged exposure is now common.
Feel energised after long online time
Only a small minority report feeling energised or very energised after more than four hours online.
By the numbers (from HCI data)
Spend more than 12 hours online per day
Report daily online exposure of more than 12 hours.
Take a break when overwhelmed online
Say their main coping response when overwhelmed online is to take a break.
Keep scrolling when overwhelmed
Say their main response when overwhelmed online is to keep scrolling, despite already feeling overloaded.
Most common online-time category is 5–6 hours
Report a typical daily online time of 5 to 6 hours.
Patterns observed in the data
High digital exposure is now normalised
Most respondents report spending more than four hours online each day, while a notable minority report more than twelve hours. This suggests that extended digital exposure is no longer unusual, but a routine condition of modern life for many people.
The findings indicate that fatigue increasingly occurs inside environments of continual connectivity rather than after exceptional periods of use.
Digital fatigue appears connected to unresolved attention
Half of respondents report feeling tired or exhausted after long online sessions, while only a small minority report feeling energised afterward.
This suggests that online activity often consumes mental energy without producing the kind of closure or restoration associated with meaningful recovery. Attention remains active, but rarely settles.
Regret suggests more than heavy use alone
The prevalence of regret indicates that online time is not only high in volume but often experienced as unsatisfying in hindsight.
This makes regret an important behavioural signal. Fatigue may not arise only from duration of use, but from the gap between attention spent and meaningful return.
Most people recognise overload and attempt to self-regulate
The most common coping response when overwhelmed is to take a break, while only a small minority say they continue scrolling.
This suggests that many people already recognise digital overload as emotionally or mentally costly, even if recovery remains inconsistent.
Online recovery may fail because stimulation continues during rest
The findings suggest that modern “breaks” often occur inside the same environments that created fatigue in the first place.
When recovery occurs through additional scrolling, notifications, or fragmented digital input, attention may slow down without fully disengaging. This may help explain why many respondents report depletion without restoration.
Common reported coping responses
When respondents feel overwhelmed online, the most common primary coping strategies include:
- 59% say they take a break.
- 16% say they exercise or move.
- 8% say they turn off their phone or disconnect.
- 8% say they talk to someone.
- 5% say they keep scrolling.
Most common words after long online time
Respondents also provided one-word reflections describing how they feel after long online time. The most common normalised terms point strongly toward tiredness, depletion, and reduced mental energy.
| Most common word | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| Tired | 139 | 14% |
| Drained | 119 | 12% |
| Exhausted | 48 | 5% |
| Fatigued | 43 | 4% |
| Bored | 36 | 4% |
| Normal | 30 | 3% |
These free-text responses were lightly normalised for case and formatting. Synonyms, spelling variations, and mixed sentiment may still be present across the wider response set.
Methodology
This page forms part of the Human Clarity Institute’s Human–AI Experience research programme, examining how digital life relates to fatigue, energy, regret, and coping behaviour. The study uses a cross-sectional online survey design and focuses on descriptive patterns in how people experience digitally mediated life.
Data were collected on 3 September 2025 via the Prolific research platform from adults across English-speaking countries. Participants provided explicit informed consent for anonymised data publication as part of HCI’s open research programme.
Sampling & participants
- Clean dataset: 1,003 valid responses
- Countries: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland
- Eligibility: Adults (18+) fluent in English
- Recruitment platform: Prolific
Participants were recruited using platform screening filters. The resulting dataset should be interpreted as a non-probability convenience sample and is not intended to represent national populations.
The cleaned dataset, variable dictionary, and reuse terms are publicly available through the HCI dataset repository: Digital Life 2025 Dataset →
Data integrity
All percentages reported on this page are calculated from valid responses in the cleaned dataset (n = 1,003). Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number for readability.
Items referring specifically to long online time use the survey wording about days with more than four hours online. Results should be interpreted according to that question frame.
The free-text word list reflects lightly normalised open responses and should be interpreted as an indicative qualitative signal rather than a full linguistic analysis.
This dataset is exploratory and descriptive in nature. It does not support causal inference and results should be interpreted as observed patterns within the survey sample.
Suggested citation:
Human Clarity Institute. (2025). Digital Life 2025 (Dataset). Human Clarity Institute.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17393881
Explore more analysis on Human Clarity Insights, or browse the full collection of HCI research reports.