Background Research on Historical, Social, and Cultural Factors Shaping Students

For various purposes, we increasingly engage with multimodal digital texts through various mobile devices, tablets, or computers. In 2025, Statista estimated that 70% of the world’s population enlisted such devices, with expectations that there would be further increases, with estimates of 5% annually, in the years to come. Overall, young adult males appear to be the most frequent users, with approximately 80% of the United States young adult males owning smartphones. Digital devices are enlisted for accessing information, communicating with others, and engaging in various activities, from gaming to video streaming. Notably, 45% of adolescents report being online “almost constantly” on their smartphones.