Wealth, digital overuse, and the changing landscape of digital inequality

Abstract

Wealth has long influenced digital inequality by shaping access to and benefits from technologies, yet its role in digital overuse—characterized by perceived dissatisfaction and negative consequences rather than mere screen time—remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between income and digital overuse, using data from the 2019–2022 Korean Smartphone Overuse Survey, with 101,625 respondents. Digital overuse is both defined and assessed in terms of self-control failure, behavioral salience, and negative after-effects, analyzed using quantile regression across income percentiles. This study examines whether the unintended consequences of digital engagement, like overuse, are also stratified along socioeconomic lines—just as the benefits of technology have been. To explore this, we test two hypotheses in the context of COVID-19: the Affluence Dependency Hypothesis, which suggests that affluent individuals are more prone to digital overuse due to greater access, and the Resourceful Autonomy Hypothesis, which posits that higher-income individuals are better able to regulate their usage. Results indicate that while affluent individuals exhibited higher overuse during the pandemic, this effect diminished by 2022, suggesting a recovery of control. By extending the discussion of digital inequality beyond access and benefits to include overuse, this study expands the landscape of digital inequalities, revealing a new form of stratification in which economic resources shape not only digital advantages but also the ability to mitigate digital risks.