JOURNAL

 

An open-access journal for research, clinical reflection, and practice-oriented writing about suicide.

UNDERSTANDING SUICIDOLOGY: RESEARCH & PRACTICE  ·  VOLUME 1  ·  ISSUE 5  ·  JULY 2026

Digital absence and youth belonging: Smartphones, identity, and inequality in young people's lives

Matias Gay, RN  ·  Understanding Suicidology: Institute for Research and Practice

 

ABSTRACT

Background: Debates about young people and smartphones often begin with use: screen time, distraction, social media exposure, or problematic dependence. Purpose: This conceptual article shifts attention from use to absence. It argues that the missing, dead, confiscated, unaffordable, disconnected, or silent phone is a revealing object in youth life because it exposes the relational, developmental, and institutional roles smartphones now perform. Approach/Methods: Drawing on youth studies, adolescent digital media research, attachment theory, extended-self and selfcontinuity theory, and digital inequality scholarship, the article develops a conceptual model of digital absence and youth participation. Findings/Argument: It identifies four overlapping pathways through which phone absence may become consequential: as a belonging threat, when peer contact and social visibility are interrupted; an identity-continuity threat, when access to photographs, messages, music, notes, and platforms is severed; an autonomy threat, when everyday navigation, schooling, work, transport, authentication, or caregiving are disrupted; and a vulnerability threat, when access to trusted adults, services, information, or support networks is weakened. The article also emphasizes absence as ambivalent, sometimes offering relief, privacy, resistance, or protection from constant availability. Implications: Youth phone dependence should not be individualized too quickly, especially where institutions increasingly require continuous connectivity. The four pathways are offered as a guide for more precise questions in research, policy, and youth-facing practice.

Keywords: smartphones; youth; belonging; digital inequality; identity

Cite as: Gay, M. (2026). Digital absence and youth belonging: Smartphones, identity, and inequality in young people's lives. Understanding Suicidology: Research & Practice, 1(5). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24039602

Download the full issue (PDF)  ·  DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24039602  ·  All issues

Published by Understanding Suicidology: Institute for Research and Practice, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Open access.