Moreover, in many cases young video gamers deceive their parents and play late at night or early in the morning, 1 which can explain reduction in breakfast frequency.

Figure 3 shows a decline in face-
to-face social activities in youth that
parallels the increase in the use of lei-
sure technologies. Circa 2016, youth
attended social functions, met friends,
Here, I seek to shed light on tech-
nology use trends in youth and ex-
amine their parallels with a range
of adverse outcomes in the school,
social, well-being, and health do-
mains. To achieve this objective, I
analyze a large dataset (n=152,172)
of survey responses by youth, ap-
proximately 13–16 years old, across
the U.S. This data is drawn from an
annual (2012–2016) survey adminis-
tered to hundreds of schools. 2

Results

Figures 1–4 portray, correspondingly, trends in: time (hours/day) spent on leisure vs. for school computing and work; healthy lifestyle activities; social activities; and well-being and self-worth. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 1 demonstrates an increase in the use of computing technologies, both for leisure and for school purposes. However, the average increase in technology use for leisure ( 30 minutes/day) is twice as much as the average increase in the use of technology for school assignments ( 15 minutes/day). Given the zero-sum-game of a student’s after-school time, one possibility is the use of technologies for leisure purposes is alluring and consequently cannibalizes from schoolwork time (average reduction of 11. 4 minutes/day between 2012 and 2016). Another possibility is the changes in the use of technology for schoolwork increases efficiency in homework tasks; but the nature of such potential efficiencies (for example, increased ease of finding explanations vs. increased ease of finding an online solution to copy) is unclear.

Figure 2 shows the changes in technology use patterns described in Figure

1 parallel a decline in the frequency of important healthy lifestyle activities, including eating breakfast, exercising, and getting sufficient sleep. Again, this might be explained via the zero-sum-game argument; the use of alluring technologies might have cannibalized from healthy lifestyle activities. For instance, video gaming can consume people’s time and prevent physical activity; it can also reduce sleep via the blue light emitted from screens. 8

Figure 1. Trends in time spent on leisure computing vs. school work in youth.

2012 1. 50

1. 20

1. 70

0.73

0.66

Error bars: 95% CI

Daily Hours of Homework Daily Hours of Computer Use for School Work Daily Hours of Internet Use Not for School

0.92

0.41 1.00

0.50

2013 2014
Year
H
o
ur
s
/D
ay

2015 2016

Figure 2. Trends in healthy lifestyle activities in youth.

2012 4. 4

4. 38

4. 22

4.07 4.02

Error bars: 95% CI

( 1) Never
( 2) Seldom
( 3) Sometimes
( 4) Most Days
( 5) Nearly Every Day
( 6) Everyday
How Often Eat Breakfast How Often Exercise
How Often Get At Least
7 Hours of Sleep/Night

4. 30

4. 18 4. 3

4. 2

4. 1

4.0

2013 2014
Year
F
re
qu
enc
y

2015 2016