Majority of teens feel happy, peaceful without smartphones: Survey
Story at a glance
- A new Pew Research Center survey found that 74 percent of teens feel happy when they don’t have their smartphones.
- The survey found that 72 percent of teens feel peaceful when they don’t have the devices.
- Some teens report feeling anxious, upset or lonely when they did not have their smartphone.
A new Pew Research Center survey published Monday found that 74 percent of teens feel happy when they don’t have their smartphones on hand.
The 1,453-person survey also found that 72 percent of teens feel peaceful when they don’t have their phones.
Most teens between the ages of 13 and 17 — 95 percent — have or at least have access to a smartphone and most use the internet every day, according to Pew data.
A smaller but still significant portion of teens reported negative feelings when separated from their smartphones.
According to the Pew survey, 44 percent of teens said not having their phone made them feel axious, while 40 percent and 30 percent said it made them feel upset and lonely, respectively.
Parents and advocates have grown more concerned about the consequences of social media on kids' and teenagers' mental health — prompting federal regulators to call for stricter regulations of the platforms.
But despite these concerns, most teens feel that the benefits of smartphones outweigh the negatives.
About 70 percent of teens said smartphones provide more benefits than harms for people their age, while 30 percent said the opposite.
Those attitudes differ among teens of different ages.
Younger girls, those aged 13 and 14, are more likely than older teen girls, younger teen boys, and older teen boys to say the harms of smartphone use outweigh the benefits.
Nearly 70 percent of teens said they think smartphones make it easier to pursue hobbies and interests, while 45 percent said the devices make it easier for young people to do well in school, according to the survey.