Use of digital technology not linked to mental health, says study
Updated: August 26, 2019 06:57 PM IST
A recent study has revealed that spending more time on smartphones is in no way related to mental health. The study was published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science. The study tracked young adolescents on their smartphones to test whether more time spent using digital technology was linked to worse mental health outcomes. The researchers found little evidence of longitudinal or daily linkages between digital technology use and adolescent mental health. The study surveyed more than 2,000 youth and then intensively tracked a subsample of nearly 400 teens on their smartphones multiple times a day for two weeks. The researchers collected reports of mental health symptoms from the adolescents three times a day and they also reported on their daily technology usage each night. They asked whether youth who engaged more with digital technologies were more likely to experience later mental health symptoms and whether days that adolescents spent more time using digital technology for a wide range of purposes were also days when mental health problems were more common. In both cases, increased digital technology use was not related to worse mental health.
