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Everyone is on their phones most of the time, including the younger generation, which means they could be more expressive when using these devices.

In a study, researchers explored whether the smartphone messages of adolescent girls could reveal signs of depression or anxiety. They focused on thirty girls aged 11-15 from two school districts in Oregon who were already enrolled in a multi-year research program on the development of adolescent girls.

The researchers asked the girls to download an app that recorded their smartphone keystrokes for four weeks while continuing to use their phones as usual. They were asked to also complete assessments on symptoms of anxiety and depression. The researchers employed ecological momentary assessment or EMA to collect real-time data on the girls' moods, with daily alerts prompting them to rate their feelings on a scale of 0-100.

Length of messages

When the girls were feeling down, they tended to use more words in their texts, possibly indicating a coping mechanism where they sought support or engaged in rumination with others. However, the study acknowledged limitations in differentiating private communications from public posts.

First-person pronouns

The findings also indicated that when the girls were in a worse mood than usual, their smartphone keystrokes reflected increased self-focus. Specifically, the girls used more first-person pronouns, such as "I," "me" and "mine," in their texts, posts and messages. Interestingly, this pattern held regardless of whether the girls initially had high or low symptoms of depression.

This result can be related to past studies where researchers found the same association between using first-person singular pronouns and depression. On top of that, another study showed that the use of these first-person pronouns was more prominent when a depressed person was talking to someone close to them. This could again signify that they may be reaching out as a form of positive coping mechanism.