Connecting alone: Smartphone use, quality of social interactions and well-being

Valentina Rotondi, Luca Stanca and Miriam Tomasuolo

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2017, vol. 63, issue C, 17-26

Abstract: This paper investigates the role played by the smartphone for the quality of social interactions and subjective well-being. We argue that, due to its intrusiveness, the smartphone reduces the quality of face-to-face interactions and, as a consequence, their positive impact on well-being. We test this hypothesis in a large and representative sample of Italian individuals. The results indicate that time spent with friends is worth less, in terms of life satisfaction, for individuals who use the smartphone. This finding is robust to the use of instrumental variables estimation to deal with possible endogeneity. We also show that, consistent with our hypothesis, the positive association between time spent with friends and satisfaction with friends is less strong for individuals who use the smartphone.

Keywords: Smartphone; Social interactions; Subjective well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 I31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Working Paper: Connecting Alone: Smartphone Use, Quality of Social Interactions and Well-being (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:63:y:2017:i:c:p:17-26

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.09.001

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