The Audit
Every claim on this site, checked against the actual studies.
I sell a service that's partly built on research, so I had the research checked. Here's every number I use, where it comes from, whether it held up — and the one that didn't.
How to read this
Three verdicts. Verified means the number matches the source. Verified with a caveat means it's right but needs context, and the context is in the table. Corrected means my claim didn't survive the check — so I changed it, and the row shows what it said before and what it says now.
One more honesty rule: a stat from a survey company or an industry report is labeled survey or industry. Those are legitimate for "how many people do X" questions, but they are not peer-reviewed science, and I don't dress them up as if they were. Peer-reviewed sources link to the actual paper.
How much people use these things
On small screens, scroll horizontally to see all table columns.
| The claim | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "Checks their phone 186 times per day" | Verified | Reviews.org Cell Phone Addiction Report survey — the number moves year to year (2024 reported 205) |
| "46% of Americans say they're addicted to their phones" | Verified | Consistent across several survey vendors survey — range across vendors runs 44–57% |
| "53% have never gone more than 24 hours without their phone" | Verified | DemandSage / Reviews.org survey |
| "Average daily screen time: 4 hours and 30 minutes" | Verified, with a caveat | That's your phone only. Total screen time across all devices runs closer to 7 hours a day. The guide now says "on your phone alone." survey |
| "Dumbphone sales grew 25% in 2025" (what this site used to say) | Corrected | No named source could be produced for the 25% figure, so the guide now says the market is growing without quoting a number. unsourced |
What phones do to relationships
On small screens, scroll horizontally to see all table columns.
| The claim | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "46% of people say they're regularly phone-snubbed by someone they love" | Verified | Roberts & David (2016), Computers in Human Behavior — the peer-reviewed anchor study on "phubbing" |
| "23% say it's caused serious problems in their relationship" | Verified | Same study. The interesting part: the damage runs through conflict about phone use — which is exactly what a signed household agreement goes after. |
| Phones out at meals degrade the conversation | Verified, with a caveat | The real-world evidence holds: Misra et al. (2016) observed 100 actual conversations — device present meant lower-rated conversation quality and empathy. But the famous lab finding that a phone's mere presence face-down poisons a conversation failed to replicate in two later attempts. So I say "phones away at meals" — and I don't claim the face-down phone is hurting you by existing. |
| Watching a partner's accounts makes a relationship safer | The opposite is verified | Métellus et al. (2025), Journal of Marital and Family Therapy — 322 young adults followed over two years: surveillance predicted lower relationship satisfaction a year later. It's why "no covert monitoring" is a hard rule of mine, not a preference. |
Sleep, notifications, and the one I got wrong
On small screens, scroll horizontally to see all table columns.
| The claim | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "Each hour of screen time after getting into bed increases your chance of insomnia by 59%" | Verified | Hjetland et al. (2025), Frontiers in Psychiatry — 45,202 Norwegian students. Also ~24 minutes less sleep per hour of in-bed screen use. |
| "People who use phones before sleep get 50 minutes less sleep per week" | Verified | Zhong et al. (2025), JAMA Network Open — 122,058 people; roughly 38–50 min/week depending on weekday mix. |
| "Grayscale reduces usage by up to 40% in the first week" (what this site used to say) | Corrected | The actual study — Holte & Ferraro (2020), 161 students — found about 38 minutes a day, roughly a 17% drop. Somewhere along the way, 40 minutes became 40 percent. The guide now says "30–40 minutes a day." Still worth doing; just not a miracle. |
| Turning notifications off (rather than ignoring them) is worth it | Verified | Stothart et al. (2015), J. Experimental Psychology — a notification costs you attention even when you don't answer it, at a cost comparable to actively using the phone. |
Why "it's not you" is a research statement
On small screens, scroll horizontally to see all table columns.
| The claim | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Frustrating computer experiences historically ate a third to half of people's computer time | Verified | Ceaparu et al. (2004) — 47–53% of computer time lost to frustrating experiences; median frustration 7 on a 9-point scale. |
| Twenty years later, being good with computers still doesn't protect you | Verified | Hertzum et al. (2023), ACM ToCHI — time lost improved to 11–20%, but frustration was unaffected by computer experience or self-efficacy, 84% of frustrating episodes were repeats, and a quarter couldn't be resolved by the user at all. |
| Tech failures stress your body more than losing money | Verified, small study | Korosec-Serfaty et al. (2022), Frontiers in Neuroscience — system delays produced greater physiological arousal than financial loss. Only 15 participants, so: promising, not settled. |
| Being locked out of your digital life genuinely damages well-being | Verified, mostly in older adults | Zheng et al. (2024), Current Psychology — nearly 4,000 people: the harm runs through learned helplessness, and confidence-building reverses it. Studied most in older adults; I apply the mechanism to everyone, and I say so. |
Why a computer guy publishes his sources
Because I ask you to trust me in your house, near your passwords, in the middle of a conversation about how your family lives. That trust should survive you checking my work. If a number on this site is wrong, I want it caught — the grayscale claim above got caught, and the site got better.
The full research file — including studies that didn't hold up and the famous findings I deliberately don't use — runs deeper than this page. Ask me about it and I'll happily talk your ear off.
Checked enough?
The service all this backs is the Household Tech Reset — two visits that fix how your house shares passwords, calendars, and screens.