Smartphone Usage by Teenagers in India: More Social Media, Less Studies : ASER 2024

New Delhi: In the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2024), 76 percent of India's children admitted that they use mobile phones for social media. This survey included 6,49,491 children from 17,997 villages of the country.

For the first time, the digital literacy section was included in this survey. It has been found that about 82.2 percent of children between 14 and 16 years of age in India know how to use a smartphone. Out of this, 57 percent children are using it for education-related activities.

According to the report, the state of Kerala in India is at the forefront in this matter, where more than 80 percent of the children said that they use smartphones for educational activities and more than 90 percent children use it for social media.'

Of the children using smartphones, 27 percent of 14-year-olds and 37.8 percent of 16-year-olds said that they have their own mobile phone. 36.2 percent of boys said that they have their own smartphone, while 26.9 percent of girls said that they have their own smartphone. This gender difference was seen in all states.

90 percent of the children surveyed said that they have a smartphone at home. While 82.2 said that they know how to use a smartphone. This includes 85.5 percent boys and 79.4 percent girls.

The digital literacy section also revealed that more boys than girls know about the safety feature.

Although the use of smartphones for educational activities was the same among girls and boys, girls were less likely to use social media than boys.

According to the report, 62 percent of children said that they know how to block or report a profile. Whereas, only 55.2 percent children know how to make the profile private. Apart from this, 57.7 percent know how to change the password.

To check the digital literacy of the children included in the survey, they were given three tasks. These included setting an alarm, searching for specific information and searching a YouTube channel. It also included sharing it using the messaging platform. According to the survey, more than three-fourths of the children successfully completed this task.

According to the report, more than 90 percent of those who could search videos on YouTube also knew how to share it.

According to the report, in 2018, about 90 percent of rural families had ordinary mobile phones and 36 percent had smartphones. In 2022, the number of families with smartphones increased to more than 74 percent and this year it has increased to 84 percent.

ASER 2024 is a nationwide rural household survey, in which a local organization or institution conducted the survey in collaboration with the NGO Pratham Education Foundation in every surveyed district.

This included self-questions on smartphone access, who owns and uses the phone, as well as an individual assessment of some basic digital skills.