Smartphones should not be seen as universally bad, vulnerable teenagers experience greater negative effects of life online.
“What we’re seeing now may be the emergence of a new kind of digital divide, in which differences in online experiences are amplifying risks among already vulnerable adolescents,”.
The increased screen time could also convert to more problems offline, the findings showed.
“The evidence so far suggests that smartphones may serve as mirrors reflecting problems teens already have.
Those from low-income families said that social media experiences more frequently spilled over into real life, causing more offline fights and problems at school,”.
The study showed that teenagers from families with a household income of less than $35,000 per year spent three more hours a day on screen media watching TV and online videos than teenagers in families with an annual income of more than $100,000.
