The most recent World Happiness Report, published on Thursday, highlights an apparent association between heavy social media use and lower wellbeing in young people, with effects most pronounced among teenage girls in some English-speaking countries.
The research team, led by the University of Oxford, analysed Gallup data alongside results from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment and other studies. Although the report stresses it did not establish a direct causal link, the combined evidence led researchers to conclude that extensive time spent on social media platforms appears to reduce happiness for certain groups.
Patterns in the data
Using Gallup’s worldwide polling, the report identifies a notable decline in life evaluations - the measure of how people assess their life satisfaction - among under-25s in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over the last decade, those self-reported evaluations fell by almost one point on a 0-10 scale. By contrast, the study found that self-reported life satisfaction among young people in other parts of the world rose on average during the same period.
The report singles out 15-year-old girls who use social media platforms for more than five hours a day as reporting lower life satisfaction compared with peers who spend less time on these platforms. Researchers caution that the impact of social media on wellbeing is complex and multifaceted.
Content and platform differences
Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and one of the report’s editors, emphasised the importance of social connection in online spaces, saying: "The message coming through loud and clear is that we should try to put the social back into social media." He added that algorithmically-pushed, passively-consumed and mostly influencer-type content had a more negative impact on users than platforms that primarily facilitate social connection.
With the caveat that the relationship is complex, de Neve noted that the combined datasets show the heavier social media use - particularly in the form described above - corresponded with lower life satisfaction among the identified group of teenage girls.
Context and potential explanations
Gallup’s managing editor Julie Ray pointed to broader social conditions as a likely contributor to the observed differences between the English-speaking countries and the rest of the world. "Social support is one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing, and previous research shows that in some countries younger people report feeling less supported, which may help explain the pattern," she told Reuters by email.
The report also notes that several countries are actively considering or implementing policy responses aimed at limiting children's access to social media. It highlights that Australia in December became the first country to ban social media use for children under 16 - a policy change that has prompted other governments to examine similar measures.
Conclusions and caveats
Researchers underline the nuanced nature of the findings: the report does not claim definitive causation, and the effect of social media on young people's wellbeing varies across contexts and types of platform use. Still, the analysis draws attention to the differences in content delivery and consumption modes - particularly algorithm-driven, passive engagement with influencer material - as associated with worse wellbeing outcomes compared with platforms that enable direct social interaction.
Summary
The World Happiness Report’s cross-study analysis points to an association between heavy, passive social media consumption and reduced life satisfaction among young people in certain English-speaking countries. The effect is most evident for 15-year-old girls using platforms more than five hours a day. Gallup polling shows a near one-point decline on a 0-10 life satisfaction scale among under-25s in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the past decade, while youth satisfaction increased on average elsewhere. Researchers urge more socially connective uses of platforms and note that the relationship between social media and wellbeing is complex and not conclusively causal.