A new study of more than 1,200 individuals found that time spent with digital technology during adolescence has little impact on long-term use, suggesting that worries about widespread tech addiction may be overblown. Parental limits on youth tech use had no lasting impact on use in adulthood.

Kids growing up in the mobile internet era have heard them all, often uttered by well-meaning parents fearing long-term problems from overuse.

But new University of Colorado Boulder research suggests such restrictions have little effect on technology use later in life, and that fears of widespread and long-lasting «tech addiction» may be overblown.

«Are lots of people getting addicted to tech as teenagers and staying addicted as young adults? The answer from our research is ‘no’,» said lead author Stefanie Mollborn, a professor of sociology at the Institute of Behavioral Science. «We found that there is only a weak relationship between early technology use and later technology use, and what we do as parents matters less than most of us believe it will.»

The study, which analyzes a survey of nearly 1,200 young adults plus extensive interviews with another 56, is the first to use such data to examine how digital technology use evolves from childhood to adulthood.

The data were gathered prior to the pandemic, which has resulted in dramatic increases in the use of technology as millions of students have been forced to attend school and socialize online. But the authors say the findings should come as some comfort to parents worried about all that extra screen time.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Original written by Lisa Marshall. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.