The direct and indirect effects of social technology use on children’s life satisfaction

Abstract

Previous research among Western youth has yielded inconclusive results regarding the effect of technology use on life satisfaction. This research focused on a particular type of technology use, namely, social use, and examined whether youths’ social technology use affects their life satisfaction through a change in the perceived quality of online, offline, and mixed-mode friendships, as well as materialism and humanism. Importantly, this study focused on a new population, namely, Polish youth. Polish culture has been typically characterized as less materialistic and more humane. Does this culture prevent youth from any harmful effects that the social use of technology might have? An analysis of the data of 583 Polish children aged 9 to 13 revealed that while social technology use directly decreased life satisfaction and increased materialism, it also fostered humanism and the perceived quality of friendships. These findings lead to recommendations for designers of children’s technology to restrict the amount and type of advertising that is targeted towards youth, to design communication applications facilitating children to meet in real life, and to provide positive online content.