New polling from the Searchlight Institute and Tavern Research has exposed a striking paradox at the heart of American digital life: voters are spending significant portions of their day on social media, they are broadly comfortable with that time, and yet they also believe the platforms are making society worse. The survey, conducted online among 1,531 likely 2026 voters from March 16-18, 2026, found that 56% of voters report spending at least one hour a day on social media. This means that for a clear majority of the electorate, social media is not a casual pastime but a regular, habitual part of daily routines. The same survey found that negative views of social media’s impact on society are widespread across nearly every demographic group. Men and women, young and old, all tend to say the technology has been bad for society, with the only exception being voters aged 50 to 64, who are split. Despite these negative views, the poll found that voters are largely satisfied with their own screen time. This combination of attitudes creates a puzzle: why do Americans continue to use social media so heavily if they think it is harmful to society, and why are they so comfortable with their personal habits? The answer may lie in the distinction people draw between the broad effects of a technology and their own individual use.
The poll’s data on screen time show that social media use is deeply embedded in the lives of most voters. More than half of all voters say they spend at least an hour a day on social media, and usage is especially high among younger adults. Among voters aged 18-34, 68% report at least one hour of daily social media use. That figure rises to 70% among voters aged 35-49, making that group the most likely to report heavy use. Voters aged 50-64 are also highly active: 61% say they spend at least an hour a day on social media. The sharpest drop-off comes after age 65, where only 34% report that level of usage. Gender differences also emerge. Women are more likely than men to spend at least an hour a day on social media, with 60% of women doing so compared with 53% of men. These findings show that heavy use is not limited to one demographic, but they also suggest that social media is especially entrenched among working-age adults and women. The age pattern is consistent with broader research on technology adoption and digital habits, but the poll also reveals something less expected: even older voters, who use social media the least, are not necessarily more positive about it. Their comfort with their own usage is very high, and their views of social media’s social impact are negative. This suggests that attitudes toward social media are not simply a function of how much time one spends on the platforms.
Negative views of social media’s impact on society are a clear theme in the poll. The technology is viewed negatively by men and women and by nearly every age group. The only exception is voters aged 50-64, who are split on whether social media’s impact on society is good or bad. This finding is striking because it cuts across the usual demographic divides that often separate American public opinion. There is no evidence in the poll that people who use social media heavily are more likely to defend it. High levels of social media usage do not correlate with positive views of social media’s impact on society. In other words, the people logging hours every day are just as likely as others to think the platforms are corrosive to public life. The negative judgment may stem from concerns about misinformation, polarization, mental health, or privacy, though the survey does not specify the reasons. Regardless of the cause, the poll suggests a broad consensus: social media is seen as a socially destructive force. And yet, because respondents continue to use the platforms, the findings capture a classic collective action dilemma, where individuals believe a technology is bad for the community but are unwilling or unable to reduce their personal use. The gap between collective concern and individual action is one of the most important undercurrents of the survey.
The poll finds that voters are broadly comfortable with the amount of time they spend on social media, despite their negative societal assessments. Among voters aged 18-34, 46% say they are okay with their screen time. This is the lowest level of comfort among the age groups, but it still represents a sizeable share. The comfort level rises with age: 57% of voters aged 35-49 are okay with their phone time, as are 62% of voters aged 50-64 and 78% of voters aged 65 and older. Across gender groups, 64% of men and 62% of women say they are okay with the amount of time they spend on their phones. The gender gap in comfort is small, meaning men and women are essentially similar in their self-assessments. The age pattern is notable: older voters, who spend the least time on social media, are the most likely to say they are content with their usage. Younger voters, who spend the most time, are the least content, but even among the youngest cohort nearly half are comfortable with their screen-time diet. This suggests that while some voters may feel a degree of guilt or concern about their usage, the dominant sentiment is acceptance. It also suggests that the intense public conversation about smartphone addiction and social media’s harms has not produced any broad feeling of personal responsibility or demand for change. Voters may recognize the dangers of social media in the abstract, but they do not seem to see their own behavior as part of the problem.
The central paradox of the survey is that a negative view of social media’s societal effect has little or no connection to voters’ comfort with their personal social media habits. Voters have soured on the effects of social media on society, but they seem to have no intention of changing their behavior. This pattern may reflect a sense that the individual is not the problem, or that the benefits of staying connected, informed, and entertained outweigh the diffuse social harms. It may also reflect the practical realities of modern life, as social media is embedded in work, family communication, news consumption, and social interaction. The poll’s numbers point to a population that has normalized social media use even as it has become suspicious of the platforms themselves. That disconnect has implications for public policy and political action. If voters are not personally unhappy with their social media use, they may be less likely to support strict measures such as bans, time limits, or heavy-handed regulation, even though they believe social media is bad for society. On the other hand, the broad negative judgment could leave room for policy interventions aimed at platform design, algorithmic accountability, or transparency, because such measures do not require voters to change their own behavior. The poll does not ask about policy preferences, but the gap between collective concern and personal comfort is likely to shape the next chapter of the debate over digital platforms.
The findings come from an online survey conducted by the Searchlight Institute and Tavern Research. The survey was fielded from March 16-18, 2026, among 1,531 likely 2026 voters. The results were weighted by gender, race, education, age, and 2024 presidential vote choice to better reflect the broader voting population. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, and it is higher for subgroups. Online surveys come with their own limitations, including the fact that they necessarily exclude people without internet access and rely on respondents’ self-reported behavior. Screen time is notoriously difficult to measure accurately, because people may underestimate or overestimate their use. Still, the survey offers a snapshot of the attitudes of likely voters at a particular moment, and the poll’s findings highlight a disconnect that could matter in the years ahead. As public concern about social media continues to grow, the fact that voters are simultaneously content with their own screen time may dampen calls for major reforms, or it may simply reveal how complicated the relationship between Americans and social media has become. The poll suggests that the debate over social media is not just a partisan issue, but a personal one, and that the public is much more comfortable with the devil it knows than with the idea of giving up their daily scroll.