Social comparison. Well-being is determined by what people have and how much they think they have relative to others. This is well-established in the literature on income and earnings, and it extends more broadly to other settings, such as friendship groups, social media, and workplace dynamics. Smartphones provide regular updates on how others are doing, and young people may perceive their world as lacking.
Direct impact on brain function. The addictive effect of smartphones is akin to the user returning continually for another “fix,” creating a dopamine response in the brain. Smartphone use can then become an end in itself, with the well-being response dependent on more intensive usage. The links between smartphone dependency and mental well-being are yet to be fully established, but smartphone addiction could have adverse impacts on behaviours and response mechanisms. In this context, displacement refers to the phenomenon where smartphone use replaces other activities more conducive to mental and physical health, such as maintaining “real” social networks and engaging in social activities outside the home, such as sport and art.
Download the full article to read it offline: