Smartphone use patterns and well-being among older adults: A screenomics study.

There has been substantial debate about the relationship between smartphone use and well-being, yet much of this work relies on selfreported or aggregate time-based measures that obscure how different types of smartphone activities relate to well-being, particularly among older adults.To address this gap, we used the screenomics framework, an objective data collection method for moment-bymoment quantification of smartphone use via continuous screen capture.We investigated smartphone usage behaviors among 30 older adults across different levels of mental well-being.Our findings showed that older adults with higher levels of emotional and social well-being spent significantly more time on more socially oriented smartphone activities, including active and passive social media use and voice calls.Conversely, those with lower psychological well-being spent more time on individually oriented smartphone activities, such as gaming and entertainment activities.Interestingly, older adults with lower psychological well-being were exposed to more positively valenced textual content on their smartphones than those with higher psychological well-being.This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of older adults' smartphone use by demonstrating how specific patterns of digital engagement are related to dimensions of well-being, highlighting the value of behavioral approaches for studying digital well-being in later life.