Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 9, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 27, 2021
Understanding Adolescents’ Perceptions and Aspirations towards Relationship with Personal Technology: Survey of Adolescents
ABSTRACT
Background:
Understanding adolescents' relationship with technology is an urgent issue in this digital age. Adolescents’ technology usage appears to have both positive and negative implications. Approximately 95% of adolescents have access to a smartphone, and several studies show correlation between screen addiction and trends of anxiety and depression. At the same time, research shows that two-thirds of adolescents believe that technology is a necessity for connecting and making new friends.
Objective:
The aim of this formative research is to understand adolescents' perception of their own and others’ relationship with personal technology.
Methods:
A survey was conducted with 619 adolescents in the 13-19 age range. Adolescents were asked how they perceived the relationship with their personal technology, how they perceived others' (parents, siblings or friends) relationship with personal technology, and how they wish to relate to their personal technology in the future.
Results:
‘Essential’, ‘Distractive’, and ‘Addictive’ were the most commonly selected descriptors to describe both adolescents' own relationship with technology (17%, 17%, 14%, respectively) and others’ relationship as well (16%, 14%, 14%). Adolescents selected 'Provides an escape' more to describe their own relationship with technology. Whereas, they selected 'It's just a tool' and 'Creates Barrier' more to describe others' relationship with technology. These trends are consistent across ages and genders. In addition, adolescents' aspirations for their relationship with their personal technology varied across ages. 13-15 year-olds' top choice was 'best friend', 16-17 year-olds’ top choice was 'I don't believe in personal connection with mobile technology,’ and 18-19 year-olds’ top choice was 'My personal assistant.’
Conclusions:
Our three-lens method allows us to examine how adolescents perceive their relationship with personal technology in comparison to others, as well as their future technological aspirations. Our findings suggest that adolescents see both communalities as well as differences in their own and others' relationships with technology. Their future aspirations for personal technology vary across age and gender. These preliminary findings in our follow-up research.
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Copyright
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