Spring Digital Cleaning: The Average Person Has 1,044 Unread Emails and 12 Unopened Texts
If A.I. is so amazing at doing human jobs, I have some SPRING CLEANING for it to do! I'll even give the robots a choice: They can start by deep cleaning the toilet, or decluttering my inbox.
There's a new survey out on digital clutter . . . and it found that the average American has:
1,044 unread emails.
12 unread text messages.
17 unread social media notifications.
11 unread app messages.
15 open browser tabs.
9 unused smartphone apps.
And 2 pending software updates.
And to be clear, that's UNREAD emails and text messages . . . not UNANSWERED. (Which is different . . . kind of. Either way, it's clearly not something we have the time or energy for.)
Not everyone can handle leaving something unseen. 63% of people say they currently have ZERO unread texts . . . and 54% say they have no unread social media notifications.
Email is harder. 32% of people claim they have zero unread emails.
Here are a few more stats: 77% of people feel digital clutter negatively impacts their life . . . 50% say they get frustrated because digital clutter makes it difficult to find apps and files they need . . .
And 31% of people have paid to upgrade a device to one with more storage because of digital clutter. (That's relatable. I could spend days deleting junk that's wasting space, OR I could just buy a new device with more room.)
Originally posted on April 8th, 2025