Characterizing Digital Communication Device Use Among Young People From 4 European Countries: Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Background: Digital communication device use is changing rapidly among young people, and current research on this topic is limited or outdated. Objective: We aimed to describe the use of digital communication devices by young people from 4 European countries and investigate their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Methods: In 2023, we administered an online survey to a convenience sample of 4000 young people aged 16 to 25 years in Italy, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland. Participants reported on their regular use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, cordless phones, and smartwatches or activity trackers. Participants answered which activities they regularly engaged in on their devices, the time spent on these devices and activities, and in what position the device was used with respect to their body over the previous 3 months. We also collected information on participant socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, including age, gender, country of birth, employment status, parental educational level, and urbanicity of the place of residence. Results: Reported prevalence of device use was 90.9% (3635/4000) for smartphones, 33.2% (1329/4000) for tablets, 68.7% (2748/4000) for laptops, 11.6% (462/4000) for cordless phones, and 23.3% (931/4000) for smartwatches or activity trackers. Older age groups and women reported higher use across most devices. The activities reported with the highest engagement for smartphones were voice calls (2553/3635, 70.2%); social media (2693/3635, 74.1%); and texting, emailing, and internet use (2530/3635, 69.6%). For tablets and laptops, they were video streaming (849/1329, 63.9% and 1527/2748, 55.6%, respectively); texting, emailing, and internet use (673/1329, 50.6% and 1218/2748, 44.3%, respectively); and social media (659/1329, 49.6% and 1521/2748, 55.3%, respectively). On average, participants used their smartphones 60.9 (SD 83.1) minutes per day for texting, emailing, and internet use; 85.2 (SD 92.7) minutes per day for social media; 46.9 (SD 70.5) minutes per day for video streaming; and 53.7 (SD 80.3) minutes per day for music streaming. Differences across activities and devices were found among socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. For example, the oldest age groups reported lower duration of smartphone use for voice calls, social media, video streaming, and music streaming compared to the youngest age group but reported higher duration of smartphone use for video calls and texting, emailing, and internet use. Moreover, women reported higher duration of use for most activities on smartphones compared to men, except for online gaming, for which men reported higher duration of use. Conclusions: Our findings provide novel information on digital communication device use by young people. We identified differences between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics that warrant further investigation. These results can be used as a point of reference for digital communication devices in public health research, including health communication strategies and epidemiological research.