A Danish TV show has ignited national debate after revealing a 72-year-old participant spends up to 13 hours daily on his smartphone, mostly scrolling TikTok and Facebook. The case challenges assumptions about digital addiction and exposes how Denmark’s hyper-digital society normalizes extreme screen time for residents of all ages.
John Hansen, a 72-year-old featured on a recent Danish television programme, uses his phone for up to 13 hours each day. TV 2 broke the story on May 31, prompting immediate follow-up coverage from BT and other outlets. His children have expressed concern about the amount of time he spends on social media, news apps, and mobile games.
The numbers are startling, even by Danish standards. Digital well-being experts note that while 13 hours is extreme, six to seven hours of daily smartphone use has become reality for many Danes. I’ve watched this creep happen over my years here, and it’s not just teens glued to screens anymore.
When the infrastructure demands connection
Denmark sits at the top of Europe’s digitalisation rankings. That’s usually presented as progress, and in many ways it is. But living here means you can’t simply “unplug” the way you might in other countries.
Every essential service runs through your phone. MitID login credentials, Digital Post, e-Boks, banking, health records, even communication with your child’s school. For expats especially, smartphones become lifelines to family abroad, translation apps, navigation, and the bureaucratic maze of Danish residency.
This infrastructure dependency blurs the line between necessary use and habitual scrolling. What starts as checking your digital mailbox becomes an hour on news sites and social feeds. The design is intentional, as Danish commentators have pointed out: platforms maximize engagement through notifications, infinite scroll, and personalized recommendations.
The expat angle nobody mentions
International residents face a particular trap. Building offline social networks in Denmark is notoriously difficult. Many expats report struggling to break into Danish social circles, which drives them deeper into global platforms for connection and community.
I’ve seen it in myself and others. When local integration feels slow or impossible, you compensate by staying more connected to home, to international groups online, to anywhere but here. Your screen time climbs without conscious decision.
The Hansen case matters because it shows this isn’t about age or tech literacy. A 72-year-old can fall into the same patterns as a teenager. The platforms work the same way on everyone.
What Denmark isn’t doing
Unlike France or Italy, Denmark has avoided hard regulation of smartphone use. There’s no formal public programme targeting adult screen time, no smartphone bans beyond individual school policies. The approach reflects Danish preference for individual responsibility over state intervention.
Health authorities recommend keeping phones out of bedrooms, turning off non-essential notifications, and scheduling device-free periods. Most smartphones have built-in monitoring tools that show daily use broken down by app. Awareness is the first step, according to Danish digital well-being organizations.
But awareness only goes so far when the entire society runs on screens. Nordic research suggests loneliness in older adults can be both helped and worsened by heavy digital use, depending on whether online time supplements or replaces face-to-face contact.
The uncomfortable question
The TV coverage has sparked debate about whether high screen time in Denmark reflects addiction or simply adaptation to a highly digital society. Critics warn against moral panic, noting that hours alone don’t indicate harm without understanding what the phone is used for.
That distinction matters, but it also misses something. When a retiree spends 13 hours daily on TikTok and Facebook, we’re not talking about productive digital citizenship. We’re talking about capture.
Denmark built a society that demands digital participation, then acts surprised when participation becomes compulsion. For those of us living here, Danish or foreign, the infrastructure makes it nearly impossible to opt out. The question isn’t whether we use our phones too much. It’s whether we still have meaningful choice in the matter.
