For Better or Worse: Understanding Smartphones and Social Media Use Among a New Generation of Young Adults and the Impact of Their Usage on Well-being.

This article examines current-day young adults' experiences with smartphone and social media use and its effects on their well-being through twenty semi-structured interviews analyzed via inferential statistics and content analysis. Findings reveal that participants often underestimate their actual usage, with habitual checking being common, and identify 21 uses and gratifications—such as social interaction, passing time, and surveillance of others—alongside numerous drawbacks including distraction, time consumption, and reduced presence in social settings. Most participants acknowledged that smartphone and social media use interfered with daily life areas like school, sleep, and in-person social interactions, often due to excitement, habit, or fear of missing out, highlighting the complex balance between benefits and harms. The study underscores that the impact on well-being depends more on how and why these technologies are used rather than the total time spent, emphasizing the need for ongoing research into evolving usage patterns among digital-native young adults.