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