by Aditi Satghare, Rohit Dandavate, Shivam Gupta, Anish Joshi, Arushi Garud, The GTF Group
Introduction
We have heard a lot of growing concern over the impact of social media impact and its influence on today’s youth. Teens credit social media for helping to build stronger friendships and exposing them to a more diverse world, but the concern is that these sites lead to constant artificial drama and social pressure. Today social media use is nearly universal among teens. There is no doubt that the youth feels overwhelmed by the drama on social media and the pressure to construct only positive images of themselves. There are several positive outcomes of social media (connectivity, education, awareness, information, and updates, exposing them to different viewpoints, and helping people their age support causes they care about).
We at GTF, therefore, decided to conduct a pilot research study in an effort to understand the age and gender distribution of technology usage, the availability of devices and access to devices, and the activity-based use of devices. Our sturdy period extended between January to February 2022.
Protocol
In this research study, we used an open-label study design. Since some of us were in different time zones, we communicated via video conferences, phone, and emails. Our target age group was 8th to 12th graders across the US.
Data collection
We created a Google form and sent out the form anonymously to our school friends (Figure 1). The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire and send it to our research group.
Figure: Questionnaire sent to the Youth
Results
We received a total of 101 responses.
Figure 2 indicates the grade distribution. Most of the students were from the 8th and 9th grades, and the rest were from 10, 11, and 12th grades.
Most of the students were of ages 14, with ages 13 and 15 following this number (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Grade distribution from questionnaire
Most of the students were of ages 14, with ages 13 and 15 following this number (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Age distribution from questionnaire
Figure 4 describes the gender distribution, most of the participants (73%) were females, followed by males 24%).
Figure 4: Gender distribution from questionnaire
Figure 5 has data from the primary phone usage. We found that phone calls and messaging are the top primary uses, followed by web browsing, entertainment, music, and social media. The activity that contributed to the longest screen time was studying, followed by entertainment and social media contributing to a big chunk of screen time. In our study, phones and laptops are the most popular devices, followed by other devices including TVs, tablets, and smart watches. Despite a small sample size and other limitations, our study clearly has given some pointers that lead us to go into an investigation in a larger sample size.
Figure 5: Primary use for phone data
The data on the time spent on various tasks is shown in Figure 6. The activity that contributed to the longest screen time was studying, followed by entertainment and social media contributing to a big chunk of screen time.
Figure 6: Time Spent on tasks on phone
The average number of devices per household is indicated in Figure 7. As can be seen, phones and laptops are the most popular devices, followed by other devices such as TVs, tablets, and smart watches.
Figure 7: Average number of each type of device per household
Limitations of the study
Our study had a few limitations which ought to be mentioned here for clarity.
1. The small sample size was small (101), and thus it is hard to draw any concrete conclusions from this data.
2. Siblings responding from the same household might have affected the data
3. Gender based usage of gaming consoles and the number of gaming consoles in the house might have had correlation.
4. The “other devices” category might have shown another possible trend.
Conclusions
In our pilot study we tried to understand the age and gender distribution of technology usage, the availability of devices and access to devices and the activity-based use of devices. A research study indicated that nearly half of all U.S. teens (46%) say they use the internet “almost constantly,” around double the percentage (24%) that reported the same usage in 2014-15. Today’s teens, nearly all (97%) say they use the internet daily, are visual communicators, and have more tools at their disposal for self-expression. This is a matter of grave concern to us and society. Despite a small sample size and other limitations, our study clearly has given some pointers that lead us to go into an investigation in a larger sample size.
Acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge the mentoring efforts of Gargi Shikhare, MD who stayed with us from day 1 and steered us in the direction of research.