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 coping behaviours. The dataset includes 1,003 valid responses across six English-speaking countries and examines how long online exposure relates to tiredness, regret, recovery, and perceived energy.
The findings show that extended time online is now normal for most respondents, that tiredness and regret commonly follow heavy digital exposure, and that long online time is more often associated with depletion than recovery.
View the Digital Life 2025 Dataset
What the data shows
Four signals stand out in this dataset: regret about time online is widespread, many people feel tired or exhausted after long online sessions, most respondents spend more than four hours online per day, and only a small minority feel energised after long online time.
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 high 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.
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 normalised
Most respondents report spending more than four hours online per day, and a notable minority report more than twelve hours. This suggests that high digital exposure is not an edge case but a routine part of daily life for many people in the sample.
Fatigue is a common endpoint of long online time
Half of respondents report feeling tired or exhausted after long online sessions, while only a small minority say they feel energised. This points to a recurring pattern where extended online time is more often associated with depletion than recovery.
Regret suggests dissatisfaction, not just heavy use
The prevalence of regret indicates that time online is not only high in volume but often experienced as unsatisfying in hindsight. This makes regret an important signal of depletion, not just a secondary reaction.
Most people try to self-regulate when overwhelmed
The most common coping response is to take a break, while only a small minority say they keep scrolling. This suggests that many people recognise digital overload and attempt to manage it, even if they still report fatigue or regret overall.
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 towards tiredness and depletion.
| 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.