Growing Up on Smartphones: The Hidden Mental Toll of India’s Digital Surge

Summary:
India’s rapid digital expansion has transformed access and opportunity, but the Economic Survey 2025–26 warns of a growing downside for young people in the form of rising digital addiction and screen-related mental health issues. With internet access now nearly universal among children and adolescents, the challenge has shifted from connectivity to behavioural and psychological wellbeing, as excessive screen use is increasingly linked to anxiety, sleep disruption, reduced attention, and social withdrawal. The survey calls for balanced, coordinated action by families, schools, platforms, and policymakers to safeguard young minds, stressing that protecting digital wellbeing is now a critical social, economic, and public health priority for India’s future. 

India’s digital rise is usually framed as a success story of connectivity, opportunity, and speed. Low-cost data, inexpensive smartphones, and a thriving app ecosystem have brought millions online in barely a decade. For today’s children and teenagers, the internet is not a tool they discovered later in life; it is the setting they have grown up in. However, the Economic Survey 2025–26 introduces a sobering counter-narrative. Beneath the headline figures of expansion and access, it highlights a quieter but more profound challenge taking shape in homes, schools, and healthcare settings: a persistent increase in digital dependence and screen-linked mental health concerns among young Indians.

The survey avoids sensationalism or a fear-driven rejection of technology. Instead, it addresses digital overuse using the vocabulary that resonates with policymakers—wellbeing, efficiency, and long-term economic impact. It describes digital addiction as ongoing, excessive, and compulsive use of devices and online platforms that disrupts mental health and everyday functioning. This is no longer a theoretical concern drawn from international discussions. According to the survey, India is already dealing with its real-world effects.

Healthcare professionals across disciplines are noticing recurring patterns in younger patients. Children unable to fall asleep without a phone nearby. Teenagers whose ability to focus collapses away from screens. University students reporting anxiety tied to social media approval and constant comparison. Young professionals who feel perpetually connected yet emotionally exhausted. The Economic Survey translates these lived experiences into policy terms, identifying diminished attention, disrupted sleep, rising anxiety, academic setbacks, and reduced workplace performance as tangible consequences of compulsive digital engagement.

What makes the situation especially troubling is that these problems have surfaced just as digital access has become almost universal among young people. For Indians aged 15 to 29, smartphones and internet connections are no longer markers of privilege; they are standard. The survey notes that access itself is no longer the main barrier. This marks a major shift. For years, India’s digital agenda focused on inclusion—closing connectivity gaps, expanding broadband, and digitising services. That phase has largely been achieved. The challenge now lies in behaviour, psychology, and social norms.

Usage data illustrates the depth of digital immersion. By 2024, nearly half of India’s internet users were consuming online video content, while social media platforms attracted more than 40 percent of users. Music streaming, email, digital payments, food delivery apps, and OTT platforms together account for hundreds of millions of active users. In absolute numbers, close to 40 crore people engage daily with video and delivery platforms, and around 35 crore are active on social media. For children and adolescents, such constant exposure shapes habits well before critical thinking skills and self-control are fully developed.

The survey expresses particular concern about the effects of this environment on young people already coping with academic pressure, competitive examinations, social expectations, and identity formation. It observes that compulsive screen use is strongly associated with anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbances. Cyberbullying, online humiliation, and the relentless performance-driven culture of social media add new layers of psychological burden that earlier generations largely did not face.

The Economic Survey goes further by connecting these individual struggles to broader economic implications. It notes that compulsive digital behaviour can cause direct financial harm through impulsive online purchases, gaming expenses, and increased exposure to cyber fraud. Indirect costs are even more significant. Reduced employability due to poor concentration, lower productivity, weaker social skills, and declining lifetime earnings quietly weigh on economic growth. When a substantial portion of the future workforce struggles with attention, emotional regulation, and resilience, the consequences extend beyond households to national outcomes.

One of the survey’s strongest cautions concerns social capital. Digital addiction, it argues, weakens offline relationships and community involvement. As young people withdraw into customised digital spaces, opportunities for shared experiences, teamwork, and real-world problem-solving diminish. Over time, this erosion undermines trust, cooperation, and civic participation—the foundations of healthy societies and effective institutions.

Social media dependence receives special attention in the report, and with reason. Multiple Indian and international studies cited in the survey link heavy social media use to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and increased suicide risk among individuals aged 15 to 24. Constant exposure to carefully curated lives, algorithm-driven comparisons, and validation metrics creates an environment where self-worth becomes tied to likes and views. For adolescents still forming their sense of identity, this can be deeply destabilising.

At the same time, the survey does not dismiss the advantages of digital engagement. It acknowledges that online platforms have widened access to education, information, jobs, and civic participation. During crises such as the pandemic, digital tools proved indispensable. The concern is not about connectivity itself, but about unregulated, immersive, and developmentally unsuitable exposure. The policy debate has shifted from whether children should be online to how, when, and under what protections.

In response, the Economic Survey calls for a rethinking of policy approaches. It suggests that age-based access restrictions deserve serious consideration, given the heightened vulnerability of younger users to addictive behaviour and harmful content. While such measures are sensitive in a country that values openness and innovation, they reflect a growing global recognition that children require different digital safeguards than adults.

The report proposes interventions spanning families, schools, communities, platforms, and the state. Cyber-safety education is a key pillar. Teaching children to navigate digital spaces safely, critically, and responsibly is no longer optional. Digital literacy must also encompass mental health awareness, enabling students to identify signs of addiction, emotional manipulation, and online harm.

Peer-mentorship programmes are another recommended strategy, acknowledging that young people often respond more to peers than to authority figures. Structured peer support can help model and reinforce healthy digital habits. Schools are encouraged to restore physical activity as a core, non-negotiable part of daily life rather than an optional extra. The evidence linking movement, mental wellbeing, and learning outcomes is now too strong to overlook.

Parents, the survey emphasises, also need guidance. Many caregivers feel ill-equipped to manage technologies they did not grow up with. Training on screen-time regulation, device norms, and age-appropriate boundaries can help families set limits without escalating conflict. Simple practices—such as screen-free hours, shared meals without devices, and collective offline activities—are highlighted as protective routines that rebuild connection.

Digital platforms themselves are not exempt from scrutiny. The survey calls for greater responsibility in moderating harmful content, designing addictive features, and targeting younger users. While innovation often depends on engagement, the report makes clear that engagement should not come at the expense of public mental health. Regulatory frameworks may need to adapt to reflect this balance.

For India specifically, the survey suggests additional context-sensitive measures. Offline youth centres could offer safe spaces for recreation, learning, and social interaction beyond screens. The concept of voluntary “digital diets” encourages families and individuals to consciously manage online consumption rather than reject technology outright. Education-only devices for children could help separate learning from entertainment, reducing distraction. Expanding access to the government’s Tele-MANAS mental health helpline is identified as a vital step in addressing emerging psychological distress at scale.

The urgency of the survey’s message is heightened by India’s demographic reality. As one of the youngest countries in the world, its future rests heavily on the cognitive, emotional, and social wellbeing of its youth. A generation that is digitally capable but mentally overwhelmed is not a demographic advantage; it is a risk. Decisions made now will determine whether technology serves as a source of empowerment or becomes a silent drain on human potential.

Healthcare providers—paediatricians, psychiatrists, family doctors, and community health workers—are increasingly encountering screen-related complaints that do not fit neatly into traditional diagnostic categories. Sleep disruption, behavioural shifts, attention difficulties, and mood changes often trace back to digital habits. Medical training and practice will need to evolve, embedding digital wellbeing into prevention, counselling, and public health communication.

The Economic Survey 2025–26 does not argue for abandoning the digital world. It calls for a more mature and balanced engagement with it. Growth without safeguards carries hidden costs. As India accelerates toward a digital future, protecting young minds is no longer a soft or secondary issue. It is a social, economic, and healthcare necessity.

The real test lies in turning awareness into action. Policies must be measured rather than impulsive, supportive rather than punitive. Responsibility must be shared among families, schools, technology platforms, and governments. If India succeeds, it can offer the world a model for harnessing digital power without sacrificing mental health. If it does not, the consequences will quietly accumulate across clinics, classrooms, and workplaces for generations.