Phone anxiety is on the rise as users are bombarded with more notifications

Is your phone making you anxious? A new study has shown Gen Zs receive a notification every eight minutes on average which is creating a new affliction called “phone anxiety”.

The research, carried out by tech and media trading experts musicmagpie, has jumped head first into this issue to find out which generation receives the most app notifications, when they receive them and the apps which give them the most.

When receiving constant notifications, the study showed that some Gen Zs had the feeling that they were always on call and felt obligated to be always contactable – which is exactly what the modern smartphone has provided.

As a result of this anxiety, it has set Google searches storing for things like “how to turn on do not disturb on an iPhone”. That search alone has increased by 240 per cent in the last 12 months as users trying to reduce the disruptions that the constant notifications cause.

The study found the average person receives 146 daily notifications which, when you add them up, is more than 1000 a week or one every 10 minutes.

What the research also showed was that Gen Zs (born 1997 to 2012) receive 55 per cent more alerts than their Gen X parents (born 1965 to 1980) with an average of 181 daily notifications with an average of 1266 a week or one every eight minutes.

But Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) received five per cent fewer notifications on average at 172 which equate to more than 1200 a week.

Gen X received an average of 586 weekly or 84 daily notifications.

And which app causes the most phone anxiety? It’s WhatsApp.

WhatsApp was found to bring on the most anxiety according to 53 per cent of participants because it sent the most notifications followed by iMessage, Instagram, Messenger and Gmail.

The data from this study showed that Thursdays were also the most overwhelming days for Gen Zs and Millennials with 208 notifications received on average daily for Gen Z and 199 for Millennials.

The calmest day was Monday with only 76 notifications for Gen X.

When it comes to unread app notifications Gen Zs led the way with 11,289 on average followed by Millennials with 175 and Gen X on 49.

Mail was the most unread app notification across all generations.

In fact, one Gen Z participant had 98,334 unopened emails.