Smartphone usage shows little evidence of harming mental well-being in adults, according to research analysing more than 250,000 days of phone activity from over 10,000 US participants aged 18 and older.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represents the largest and most comprehensive investigation to date examining how objectively measured smartphone behaviour relates to mood and well-being, reports the University of Oregon.
Researchers from the University of Oregon’s Center for Digital Mental Health collaborated with Google Research to track participants’ smartphone activity including screen time, app categories and unlock frequency over a four-week period. The data was paired with daily mood assessments to investigate potential relationships between phone use and subsequent mental health symptoms.
“Our findings challenge the popular assumption that smartphone use is inherently harmful to mental health and well-being,” said Nicholas Allen, the Ann Swindells Professor of Clinical Psychology who directed the research. “There’s been a lot of public concern and policy discussion often based on small, self-reported studies. This large-scale, objective data suggests the relationship is far more nuanced and, in most cases, minimal — at least over this time frame.”
The research team used objective smartphone data rather than self-reports, which have proven unreliable indicators of actual phone usage patterns. Participants’ activity was passively recorded whilst statistical techniques investigated potential correlations between smartphone use and mood across time periods.
Younger adults showed a slightly stronger link between social media use and lower mood in single-point-in-time data analysis. However, that association failed to persist over longer time periods. Across both group and individual analyses, effects proved either weak or statistically insignificant.
Demographic factors including age and gender emerged as substantially stronger mood predictors than smartphone usage. Younger adults and women reported lower average mood scores regardless of phone usage levels.
The collaboration emerged when Google health researchers contacted Allen in 2021 to discuss studying digital device use and well-being. “We discovered that we both wanted to address some of the limitations of previous work on the topic, like relying on self-report data of phone use patterns, which might not have much association with actual use, and small or biased samples,” Allen explained. “So this was a unique opportunity to establish a collaboration between the technology industry and university researchers to address an important issue, and it provided opportunities that would not have been possible without this partnership.”
Google researchers collaborated on subject recruitment and analysis of data collected using the Google Health Studies app. “This study represents an important partnership with the University of Oregon to accelerate research on digital well-being and to help generate evidence-based insights so that we can support our users,” said John Hernandez, director and head of clinical research and health impact at Google and study co-author.
“We are thankful to the more than 10,000 participants who contributed their data to this comprehensive research study. This effort enabled the collection of objective, real-world smartphone data and well-being data at an unprecedented scale,” Hernandez stated. “Releasing public datasets from this research should enable the broader scientific community to continue performing independent analyses and advance our collective understanding of digital behaviours and well-being.”
Researchers cautioned the study was limited to adults aged 18 and older covering only a four-week period. The work contributes methodological advancements and a large public-use dataset to inform future research.
“Smartphones are part of the context of our daily lives; they’re not inherently good or bad,” Allen said. “The key is understanding how people use them and how technology can be designed to support well-being rather than detract from it.”
