{"id":669850,"date":"2026-07-02T13:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669850\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:29:09","slug":"uk-media-consumption-trends-in-2026-are-smartphones-impacting-attention-spans-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669850\/","title":{"rendered":"UK media consumption trends in 2026: Are smartphones impacting attention spans in the UK?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"giopi\">Key findings:<\/p>\n<p>Nearly two-fifths of media consumers (39%) say smartphones have affected their own ability to concentrate either a great deal (9%) or a fair amount (30%).More than three-quarters of media consumers (76%) say smartphones have affected the general population\u2019s ability to concentrate, including 36% who say they have done so a great deal.More than a quarter of media consumers (27%) say they have recently tried to change how they use their phone or digital media, with 16% reporting improved focus as a result and 11% noticing no improvement.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"d4epd\">In the first part of our UK media consumption trends series, we explore the <a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/54915-uk-media-consumption-trends-in-2026-tv-streaming-and-social-media-usage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">platforms and channels shaping Britons&#8217; media habits<\/a>. In Part 2, we look at how UK adults engage with short-form and long-form video content.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ulgj\">In this third instalment, we examine how people think smartphones have impacted the ability to concentrate \u2013 both on a personal and societal level \u2013 and whether UK adults are taking steps to manage their digital media consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Do smartphones harm society&#8217;s ability to focus?<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"1ntl7\">Nearly two-fifths of media consumers (39%) say smartphones have affected their own ability to concentrate, either a great deal (9%) or a fair amount (30%). Younger adults are more likely to feel their attention has been affected, with 54% of 18\u201324-year-olds and 56% of 25\u201334-year-olds saying smartphones have impacted their ability to concentrate a great deal or a fair amount. By contrast, only 22% of those aged 55+ share this view, while nearly a third (31%) say smartphones have had no impact on their concentration at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key findings: Nearly two-fifths of media consumers (39%) say smartphones have affected their own ability to concentrate either&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-669850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}