The relationship between smartphone use and subjective well-being in rural China

Abstract

Due to the popularization of the Internet in rural China, mobile Internet use has become an essential part of rural residents’ lives and work. No studies, however, have investigated the potential effect of smartphone use on quality of life among rural residents in China. This study thus applies ordinary least squared, conditional quantile and instrumental variable techniques to survey data for 493 rural Chinese households to assess the impact of smartphone use (SU) on their subjective well-being (SWB). The results reveal an association between SU and increases in both life satisfaction and happiness that remains even after we adjust for possible endogeneity. The analysis also indicates that SU intensity is associated with lower levels of both SWB measures, especially when it exceeds 3 h per day. Quantile estimates further indicate that in both participation and intensity, SU has a much greater impact on SWB at the median level of the SWB distribution. Our multiple mediation results show that the positive SU–SWB linkage is partially mediated by both farm income and off-farm income. This may suggest that the local government should invest in Internet infrastructure to promote agricultural activities and develop specific rural services to boost farm income via better access to information of agricultural production and market networks. Mobile information and communication technologies can also provide more opportunities for rural entrepreneurship and innovation, in particular by motivating young farmers to actively engage in rural e-business ventures which can raise off-farm income.