Everyone does it\u2014differently: A window into emerging adults\u2019 smartphone use

Nastasia Griffioen,Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff,Hanneke Scholten,Marieke Van Rooij,Isabela Granic

doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00863-1

Nastasia Griffioen, Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00863-1

Copy DOI

Abstract

Concerns regarding smartphones’ and social media’s impact on youth remain high amidst a growing realization that current research is not designed to confirm (or refute) such concerns. This study aims to answer fundamental questions regarding youths’ use of smartphones, by implementing a novel user-centric research method. The smartphone use of 114 emerging adults was recorded, followed by in-depth interviews that incorporated the recording and in-app information to help participants recall their behaviours, motivations, and feelings. Results indicate that smartphone use is indeed ubiquitous; 88 out of 114 participants started using their smartphone as soon as they were left alone. However, the findings of this study also demonstrate great diversity in smartphone use, in e.g. social media platforms used and motivations for using different apps. These results illustrate that it no longer seems sensible to refer to “screen time” as if it represents a homogeneous phenomenon across youth. Additionally, preliminary indications have been found of relationships between individual differences in mental health indices and variations in smartphone use. The current study provides new insights into youths’ smartphone use and its relationship with wellbeing.

Highlights

Smartphones occupy young people’s hands and minds wherever one looks
We argue that researchers—as well as policy-makers, parents, teachers, and young people themselves—need basic, detailed, and reliable data about smartphone use and its relation to mental health and wellbeing before further policy decisions, parenting advice, and educational reforms are implemented (Willsher, 2017)
Using a person-centric research paradigm designed to uncover these aforementioned aspects of smartphone use (Griffioen et al, 2020), we aimed to provide data that described emerging adults’ digital activity

Summary

Introduction

Concerns regarding smartphones’ impact on adolescents and emerging adults have in some cases even taken on the shape of policies being put in place to restrict children’s access to their phones, such as those implemented in France (Willsher, 2017). Despite this surge in attention to smartphones and their impact on wellbeing, there is much we still do not know about youth and their relationships with smartphones. Data on smartphone use is unreliable and its validity is questionable: correlations between self-reported and passive sensing data (i.e., data collected through a mobile application running in the background) are low, with people consistently either over- or underestimating their actual smartphone use (Ellis, 2019; Ellis et al, 2019)

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion