COVID-19 and the Screen: How the Pandemic Fueled Device Addictions

Article written by: Jia Fletcher

Article designed by: Jia Fletcher & Palak Tiwari

Before the pandemic, the average screen time for children and youth (aged 0-21 years) was around 2.5 hours. During the pandemic, the average screen time for the same age group exceeded 4 hours (sciencedirect.com). 

This increase in screen time can mostly be explained by the fact that students had to attend online school and people were quarantined inside their homes for days on end without much to do. However, once the pandemic was over (and related regulations were lifted), our average screen time didn’t return to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, people’s screen time usage continues to increase even today. Just look outside! Everyone seems to have their heads buried in their phones. Whether we’re waiting in lines, walking on sidewalks, or even eating at a restaurant with family, we can’t seem to escape the hold our devices have on us.

Why does our screen time keep increasing, and what role did the pandemic play in this?

This can be explained in one word: addiction. During the pandemic, we started using our devices more often; as time went on, many factors contributed to forming addictions that we now struggle to break free from.

Video games played a large role in increasing our screen time. During the pandemic, many online games saw a huge surge in their popularity. At the height of the pandemic in 2021, Epic Games generated $5.7 billion in revenue

 due to Fortnite becoming a household favorite (sacra.com). Millions of kids around the world spent hours every day playing video games, fueling their addictions. However, can we really blame them? These games provided children with a community to interact with (something they lacked due to quarantine) and helped them relieve stress they experienced during such a chaotic time. As a result, kids started viewing video games as a source of comfort. However, now they continue to spend hours online instead of going outside or engaging in activities/crafts away from their devices. They’ve become addicted.

Without being able to go out, we also turned to social media for interaction and content. In the first quarter of 2020, TikTok was downloaded over 300 million times–a record-breaking statistic (Li et al.). TikTok’s short-video format started growing in popularity, being implemented on various platforms worldwide (like Instagram). However, this kind of format only worsens our addictions. It allows us to consume/spread lots of content in a short amount of time. This gets us addicted to quick, easy-to-obtain dopamine (our feel-good hormone associated with pleasure) whenever we view/post content; as a result, our attention spans end up decreasing while our addiction continues to grow. 

This increase in social media use during the pandemic then led to the spread of lots of beauty-related content in a quick and easy manner. With this kind of content becoming more popular, certain beauty standards.

 started to become idealized and adored. Many online users found themselves feeling insecure looking at other “conventionally attractive” people; as a result, many suffered with mental health issues, eating disorders, low self-esteem, etc. These users tended to have higher screen times, since–counterintuitively–they felt like their devices were an escape from reality. However, continuing to use their devices only worsened their mental health further (due to being exposed to more beauty content), causing them to keep relying on their devices for comfort (sciencedirect.com). It’s a cycle that’s hard to break away from. Just like with video games, this dependency on devices to help us developed into an addiction–despite it harming us.

So to answer our question, our screen time has been increasing because we’ve become addicted to our devices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of social interaction, the popularity of social media and video games, and increased mental health issues all worsened our device addictions.

The pandemic has left a large impact on our relationship with our devices. It’s up to us to change that and detach.

Works Cited

Author links open overlay panelEun Jung Choi a, et al. “Screen Time in Children and Youth during the Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Global Pediatrics, Elsevier, 7 Sept. 2023, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667009723000465.

Author links open overlay panelJean M. Twenge a, et al. “Associations between Screen Time and Lower Psychological Well-Being among Children and Adolescents: Evidence from a Population-Based Study.” Preventive Medicine Reports, Elsevier, 18 Oct. 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518301827.

“Epic Games Revenue, Valuation & Funding.” The Private Markets Research You Need to Be a Better Investor, sacra.com/c/epic-games/#:~:text=Sacra%20estimates%20that%20Epic%20Games,in%2Dgame%20purchase%20business%20model. Accessed 22 July 2025.

Gill, Sunil. “Fortnite Revenue, Player Count & Net Worth 2025.” Priori Data, 28 Apr. 2025, prioridata.com/data/fortnite-statistics/.

Hedderson, Monique M, et al. “Trends in Screen Time Use among Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic, July 2019 through August 2021.” JAMA Network Open, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Feb. 2023, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9932850/#:~:text=Prepandemic%20mean%20(SD)%20total%20screen,pandemic%20period%2C%20in%20adjusted%20models.

Li, Yachao, et al. “Communicating Covid-19 Information on TikTok: A Content Analysis of TikTok Videos from Official Accounts Featured in the COVID-19 Information Hub.” Health Education Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 12 July 2021, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7989330/.

“Phone Addiction: Warning Signs and How to Get Help.” HelpGuide.Org, 13 Mar. 2025, www.helpguide.org/mental-health/addiction/smartphone-addiction.

Rosen, Larry. “5 Ways to Counteract Your Smartphone Addiction.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, 16 Mar. 2018, hbr.org/2018/03/5-ways-to-counteract-your-smartphone-addiction.