World Happiness report: Social media use is tied to well-being

While most youth around the world are happier today than they were 20 years ago, this is not true for the United States, other English-speaking countries, or parts of Western Europe.

That’s according to the latest World Happiness Report, which is released annually on the International Day of Happiness, designated by the United Nations as March 20.

Social media may be in part to blame, and this year’s happiness report found that youth who used social media more than five hours daily reported a lower level of well-being.

The survey covers 96% of the world’s population in at least 140 countries annually, using a mix of in-person and phone interviews conducted in respondents’ native languages, Ilana Ron Levey, managing director at Gallup, told CNN.

Researchers saw “declines in youth well-being in a subset of developed countries, particularly the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,” Ron Levey said. The survey data also revealed some declines in France, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Ron Levey found it interesting that youth well-being and happiness have risen in some Central European countries, despite high internet penetration and widespread social media use, and hypothesized that this could be due to strong family relationships and social connections.

While the report does not conclude that social media is the dominant or only factor explaining these differences in youth well-being, it’s at least one of the factors, Ron Levey said.

The report—produced with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and an independent editorial board—may be best known for its annual ranking of the world’s happiest countries. But researchers also focus on issues affecting the well-being of different groups of people each year.

This year’s target is social media’s impact on well-being — and what researchers reported could change the way people think about how they use it.

People are aware of the negative impacts, such as feeling sad and anxious due to social media, coauthor Cass Sunstein, a Robert Walmsley University professor at Harvard Law School, told CNN. So he was keen to explore why people can’t stop using it.

He analysed three studies and found that “a lot of young people spend time on social media platforms only because other young people spend time on social media platforms — and they wish those platforms did not exist,” he said via email.

So why stay on these apps? One reason is social pressure and the fear of being the only one to opt out, his analysis showed.

Sunstein also found that people would pay little to use social media platforms for a month but would need to be paid a lot of money to stay off them for the same period of time — even though it made them feel better.

“When people stay off Facebook for a month, they are happier, less anxious, and less depressed,” he said. “Even so, they would have to be paid about $85 to be off Facebook for another month,” and college students would need to be paid a fair bit to be off platforms like TikTok or Instagram for a month. Interestingly, they would pay for their peer group to be off the same apps.

“Social media should be considered an adult product regardless of circumstance,” said coauthor Zach Rausch, senior research scientist at New York University’s Stern School of Business, in an email.

Harm extends beyond mental health, he said. It’s important to consider high rates of cyberbullying, addiction, sexual solicitation, and sextortion, to name a few.

Heavy use appears to be the dividing line between happy and unhappy youth.

One analysis surveyed data from 15-year-olds from around the world and “found girls who use social media heavily are less satisfied with their lives,” said coauthor Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, via email.

This was true for boys only in some regions — “social media seems to be more toxic for girls than for boys,” said Twenge, who also challenged the idea that teen girls must be on social media to have a full social life. “In most regions, girls who did not use social media at all were the most likely to be completely satisfied with their lives.”

Despite social media use in the Middle East and North Africa ranking among the highest in the world, “the key takeaway is that social media use is not inherently harmful, but it becomes problematic at high intensity,” wrote coauthor Martijn Burger, professor of happiness economics at Open University of the Netherlands, in an email.

When people spend more than about five hours per day on social media, researchers consistently observed lower well-being: more stress, more depressive symptoms, and more negative comparisons with others, Burger said.

Burger and his fellow researchers also looked at social comparison, with the steady exposure to curated and idealised posts functioning as a key mechanism that undermines well-being. That’s especially true for those who rely heavily on social media, follow online influencers, or use multiple platforms.

Why your friends’ scrolling can affect you

The effects of social media consumption on well-being can’t be distilled into one universal claim, largely due to the “peer group” effect.

“The internet is not equally good or bad for everyone — it depends heavily on who you are and the digital world surrounding you,” wrote coauthors Zeynep Ozkok, Jonathan Rosborough and Brandon Malloy, all associate professors of economics at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

Social media use can be beneficial when peer-group exposure is low, they reported, but becomes increasingly harmful as engaging with online content becomes more widespread among one’s peers.

Researchers estimated that internet use is most harmful for Gen Z, less harmful for millennials, close to neutral for Gen X, and slightly beneficial for baby boomers. The generational differences reflect the reality that young people are online more than older people. It also suggests that extra online time is more strongly tied to feeling worse for them than it is for older generations.

The report authors also argued the internet may be worsening existing social problems rather than acting “as the sole root cause,” pointing to declining trust, fewer in-person friend meetups and the sense among many younger people that they’re falling behind socially.