Digitizing Joy: The Role of Smartphone Use in Capitalizing Positive Life Events and Adolescents’ Psychological Wellbeing

Positive life events shape peoples’ identities and are crucial for their mental and physical wellbeing. Holding on to positive moments in life and sharing them with others, a process named capitalization, has been associated with increased wellbeing, health, personal and social growth. Given the omnipresence of smartphones and the immense popularity of social media in our society, actual experiences, but also memories of an event might have fundamentally changed for adolescents. Moreover, teens are know to be “always on” and they frequently use their smartphone in public and during social gatherings. Despite the potential positive outcomes of capitalization of positive life events on adolescents’ wellbeing, the role of adolescents’ smartphone use has not yet been systematically studied. The project has two research objectives: First, developing a new interdisciplinary theoretical model, which allows to systematize and extend research on the influence of smartphone’s use and adolescents’ wellbeing. Second, introducing an innovative method to social science research to study influences of adolescents’ daily mobile phone use on short-term and long-term wellbeing. The results will inform the general population how individuals to benefit from smartphones in an era of permanent connectivity.