BACKGROUND
Understanding teens' relationship with technology is a pressing topic in this digital era. There seem to be both benefit and harmful implications that originate from use of technology by teens. Approximately 95% of teenagers have access to a smartphone, and several studies show a positive correlation between screen addiction and trends of Anxiety and Depression. While, at the same time, research shows that two-thirds of teenagers believe that technology is a necessity for connecting and making new friends.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this research is to understand teens’ perceptions of their own and others’ relationship with personal technology and what future relationships do teens aspire to have with their technology. This will be fundamental in helping designers, healthcare practitioners and youth counselors inform design in technology accordingly.
METHODS
This research paper explores teens and technology relationship via three lenses. Lens-1 is teens' perception of their current relationship with their personal technology as users. Lens-2 is teens' perception of others' (parents, siblings or friends) relationship with personal technology as bystanders. Lens-3 is teens’ aspiration of how they wish to relate to their personal technology. We conducted an online survey with 619 teens in the 13-19 years age range.
RESULTS
We found that teens selected 'Essential,' 'Distractive,' and 'Addictive' most commonly to describe their own and others' relationship with personal technology. Whereas teens selected 'Provides an escape' more to describe their own relationship with technology. In contrast, 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. Additionally, we found that 13-15 year-olds, particularly the majority of females in this age range, wish to see their future technology as their 'best friend.' However, 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 lenses approach is holistic as it allowed comparison of how teens perceive their relationship with personal technology as users vs. bystanders and from current vs. aspirational perspectives. This research not just confirms what is already known, but uncovers critical new associations more exclusive to teens' own relationship with technology. This paper presents related design implications to inform personal tech design thinking, including our guideline to shift 'user experience design' process to 'user relationship design.'
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