Social media is making young people less happy, report finds Social media

Heavy social media use has led to a ‘worrying decline’ in well-being in Western countries, says a World Happiness report.

A United Nations-backed report has found that social media has played a big role in the decline in happiness among young people in Western countries.

Heavy social media use partly explains a “perceived decline” in the well-being of young people in the West, the latest edition of the annual World Happiness Report said on Wednesday.

Overall, 15 Western countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have seen significant declines in youth well-being over the past two decades, the report said.

This trend has not been observed globally, with young people reporting higher life satisfaction than before in regions that comprise 90 percent of the world’s population.

“Trends are driven by many factors that differ between continents. However, the evidence in this report suggests that heavy social media use, particularly in some countries, provides an important part of the explanation,” researchers John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, John-Emmanuel de Neve, Laura B. Aknin and Shun Wang said in the report.

“Outside the English-speaking world and Western Europe, links between social media use and well-being are more positive, and they vary between platforms,” ​​the researchers added.

The report, published by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, cited data from sources including the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and research by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

Despite the decline in youth well-being, Western countries, particularly in Scandinavia, dominated overall happiness rankings across age groups.

Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world for the ninth consecutive year, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway.

The Netherlands, Israel and Switzerland also make the top 10.

Middle Eastern and African countries have lower happiness scores.

Afghanistan reported the lowest life satisfaction, with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon also ranked in the bottom 10 countries.

Social media use among young people is a growing concern for governments amid reports linking the platforms to bullying, sexual exploitation and worsening mental health.

Australia introduced the world’s first social media ban for under-16s last year, with plans for similar restrictions in place in Indonesia, France and Greece.