Digital Technology, Problematic Use, and Socio-Economic Consequences Among University Students

University students nowadays are surrounded by digital technologies that are instantaneously enabling and destabilizing. Despite extensive recognition that extreme and poorly regulated technology use is linked to reduced academic performance and psychological distress, its socio-economic dimensions remain poorly understood. This paper examines the relationship between problematic use of digital technology, behavioral outcomes, and socio-economic consequences among university students in Bengaluru, India. An illustration of a systematic literature review of over 80 peer-reviewed studies, grounded in Digital Addiction Theory, Bourdieu’s Capital Theory, and the Technology Acceptance Model, develops an integrative conceptual framework that connects antecedent socio-economic conditions to downstream academic and economic outcomes through the mediating construct of problematic digital use. Findings from the literature reveal that low-SES students are unreasonably vulnerable to compulsive digital use and more deficient in productive digital skills, a double disadvantage that is likely to be amplified by AI-driven job displacement. This paper presents a novel integrated framework and proposes a two-phase empirical agenda for future research, with direct implications for the implementation of NEP 2020 and digital equity policy in India.