In two nationally representative surveys of U.S. adolescents in grades 8 through 12 ( N = 506,820) and national statistics on suicide deaths for those ages 13 to 18, adolescents’ depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates increased between 2010 and 2015, especially among females. Adolescents who spent more time on new media (including social media and electronic devices such as smartphones) were more likely to report mental health issues, and adolescents who spent more time on nonscreen activities (in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, print media, and attending religious services) were less likely. Since 2010, iGen adolescents have spent more time on new media screen activities and less time on nonscreen activities, which may account for the increases in depression and suicide. In contrast, cyclical economic factors such as unemployment and the Dow Jones Index were not linked to depressive symptoms or suicide rates when matched by year.

In nationally representative yearly surveys of United States 8th, 10th, and 12th graders 1991-2016 (N = 1.1 million), psychological well-being (measured by self-esteem, life satisfaction, and happiness) suddenly decreased after 2012. Adolescents who spent more time on electronic communication and screens (e.g., social media, the Internet, texting, gaming) and less time on nonscreen activities (e.g., in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, attending religious services) had lower psychological well-being. Adolescents spending a small amount of time on electronic communication were the happiest. Psychological well-being was lower in years when adolescents spent more time on screens and higher in years when they spent more time on nonscreen activities, with changes in activities generally preceding declines in well-being. Cyclical economic indicators such as unemployment were not significantly correlated with well-being, suggesting that the Great Recession was not the cause of the decrease in psychological well-being, which may instead be at least partially due to the rapid adoption of smartphones and the subsequent shift in adolescents' time use. (PsycINFO Database Record

Studies have produced conflicting results about whether digital media (the Internet, texting, social media, and gaming) displace or complement use of older legacy media (print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers; TV; and movies). Here, we examine generational/time period trends in media use in nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States, 1976 -2016 (N ϭ 1,021,209; 51% female). Digital media use has increased considerably, with the average 12th grader in 2016 spending more than twice as much time online as in 2006, and with time online, texting, and on social media totaling to about 6 hr a day by 2016. Whereas only half of 12th graders visited social media sites almost every day in 2008, 82% did by 2016. At the same time, iGen adolescents in the 2010s spent significantly less time on print media, TV, or movies compared with adolescents in previous decades. The percentage of 12th graders who read a book or a magazine every day declined from 60% in the late 1970s to 16% by 2016, and 8th graders spent almost an hour less time watching TV in 2016 compared with the early 1990s. Trends were fairly uniform across gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The rapid adoption of digital media since the 2000s has displaced the consumption of legacy media. Public Policy Relevance StatementCompared with previous generations of teens, iGen teens in the 2010s spend more time online and less time with older media such as books, magazines, and TV. Time on digital media appears to have displaced time once spent reading and watching TV.

Introduction: Adolescents spend an increasing amount of time using digital media, but gender differences in their use and in associations with psychological well-being are unclear. Method: We drew from three large, representative surveys of 13-to 18-year-old adolescents in the U.S. and UK (total N = 221,096) examining digital media use in hours per day and several measures of psychological well-being separately in each of the three datasets. Results: Adolescent girls spent more time on smartphones, social media, texting, general computer use, and online, and boys spent more time gaming and on electronic devices in general. Associations between moderate or heavy digital media use and low psychological well-being/ mental health issues were generally larger for girls than for boys. Light users of digital media were slightly higher in well-being than non-users, with larger differences among boys. Among both genders, heavy users of digital media were often twice as likely as low users to be low in well-being or have mental health issues, including risk factors for suicide. Conclusions: Associations between heavy digital media use and low psychological well-being are larger for adolescent girls than boys.

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