The pope has made a speech at World Youth Day mass in Panama, urging those in the crowd to spend less time on their phones, and more in their communities.
In the United States, the average teenager is thought to spend about nine hours a day consuming watching TV or playing video games on their laptop or smartphone.
And a study by the National Institutes of Health in the US found that kids who spend more than two hours a day on screens achieved lower scores on thinking and language tests.
Using social media can also lead to an increase in loneliness, depression and suicide, particularly among young women.
Children as young as four years old are being treated for neck and back problems because they are spending too much time on phones or tablets.
Anders Sandberg, senior fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University talks to Al Jazeera about the societal impact of the virtual world.
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