Andrew Garfield may not have a public Instagram account, but he is hardly living a scroll-free life. The actor has confirmed that he maintains a secret account and says his own screen-time reports have become difficult to look at.
“I’m as addicted as anybody. My screen time notifications are horrific to me,” Garfield said in a new Variety interview. He said seeing the total can leave him feeling as though he has given hours of his life “to nothing,” calling the lack of control over those impulses particularly frustrating.
His algorithm is also surprisingly specific. Garfield said his Instagram rabbit holes include “weird ceramics” and “lots of Japanese kind of craftspeople,” proving that knowing how deliberately addictive social platforms can be has not made him immune to their pull.
The confession arrived as Garfield discussed The Magic Faraway Tree, a family fantasy whose modern-day characters have their own complicated relationship with screens and technology.
Garfield Says Keeping His Phone in Another Room Helps
Garfield told Variety that he understands the impulse to smash a phone or throw it into a forest or the sea after realizing how much attention it consumes. He said the problem feels especially troubling because social platforms and devices are designed to take advantage of impulses users cannot always easily control.
One strategy has worked better for him than relying on willpower alone. Garfield said he has found that leaving his phone in another room “does a lot of the heavy lifting.”
The difference, in his experience, is simply removing the temptation from immediate reach. Once the phone is in the same room, Garfield suggested, resisting the urge to pick it up becomes considerably more difficult.
His Secret Social Media Accounts Aren’t Actually a New Confession
Garfield has been quietly acknowledging his anonymous browsing habits for years. During a 2021 WIRED autocomplete interview, he was asked whether he had social media and answered, “Not officially, no,” before admitting that he had “a couple of creeper accounts” that he used to follow news.
He returned to the subject at the London premiere of The Magic Faraway Tree in March 2026. Speaking to the Associated Press, Garfield said he was “just as bad as everyone else” when it came to doomscrolling and again acknowledged using “creeper accounts,” according to PEOPLE.
At the time, Garfield said he had to be “very, very disciplined” with himself because social platforms tap into addictive human responses. The new Variety interview adds another layer by identifying Instagram specifically, revealing what fills his feed and admitting just how alarming he finds his own screen-time totals.
‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ Takes on the Same Screen-Time Problem
Technology is built directly into the setup of Garfield’s latest movie. The official synopsis follows Polly and Tim, played by Claire Foy and Garfield, as their family relocates to the remote English countryside. With no Wi-Fi or electricity to charge their devices, their children are pushed outdoors, where they discover the magical tree at the center of Enid Blyton’s stories.
Garfield said phones were not banned during production because the filmmakers were not trying to “damn technology.” Instead, he described the movie as being interested in finding a healthier relationship with it and preventing devices from taking over experiences that could otherwise involve imagination, nature and connection with other people.
Directed by Ben Gregor from Simon Farnaby’s adaptation of Blyton’s children’s books, The Magic Faraway Tree opened in U.S. theaters on August 21, 2026.