Teenage girls’ surprising smartphone use revealed in new study: ‘Seriously’

This news is nothing to rave about.

Some teenage girls are working more than five hours a day on their smartphones – most likely to be addicted to social media, an obsession that has been linked to poorer health and well-being, a new study finds from Finland.

“The implications of nearly six hours of daily smartphone use and its associations with adolescent well-being are serious,” the study authors wrote in findings published Tuesday in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

In Finland, 1,164 female students aged 15 to 16 were recruited in 2022 to provide data on their screen time, which the researchers used to calculate phone use and social media consumption.

The average daily use of smartphones was 5.8 hours and the average time spent using social media was nearly four hours. No significant difference was found between weekdays or weekends.

Participants also rated their health, mood, fatigue and loneliness.

Researchers estimated that about 17% of teenagers were possibly addicted to social media, while 37% showed signs of an anxiety disorder.

Social media addiction was linked to higher levels of anxiety, poorer body image, poorer health, lower mood, more fatigue and greater feelings of loneliness.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to combine objectively measured smartphone use with validated measures of social media addiction and well-being,” the researchers wrote.

They noted several limitations to their study, including that they did not exclude anyone; some of the participants may have had pre-existing mental health problems; GPAs were self-reported; and some teenagers submitted incomplete phone information.

Researchers say caregivers should create tech-free zones and help teens foster personal relationships, while policymakers should push tech companies to prioritize safety and health in social media development.

The authors of the study called the 2023 advisory of the US surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, about the effect of social media on the mental health of young people “an important call to action”.

“While some advocate for increased mental health services to address increased adolescent anxiety, no single service will be sufficient unless the root causes are addressed,” they wrote.