Age-related underestimation of smartphone screen time

There is growing evidence that self-reported media use poorly reflects real use, yet self-reports remain the dominant method in media research. Furthermore, the capacity to self-regulate smartphone use intuitively depends on how accurately one perceives that use. Here, we directly compared self-reported and objectively logged smartphone screen time in 304 participants aged 20 to 84 years. We found that reporting bias was strongly age-dependent: older adults underestimated their use while younger adults overestimated theirs. The age-related reporting bias was not explained by working memory performance (2-back task). Working memory did not mediate the association between age and reporting discrepancy. Our findings indicate that self-reported smartphone use carry little information on real use. We highlight the importance of objective measures of smartphone use and the need for understanding mechanisms which distort perceived use.