this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026

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Social media makes people unhappy — World Happiness Report (www.dw.com)

submitted 9 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The 2026 World Happiness Report found that life satisfaction among those under 25 in some English-speaking countries has fallen sharply over the past decade. Finland was once again the happiest country.

Finland once again showed the world the path to happiness even as heavy social media usage eroded personal well-being among young people across the planet, the World Happiness Report 2026 said on Thursday.

The report, produced by the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the United Nations, found life satisfaction among under-25s in countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has fallen sharply over the past decade.

The study is based on surveys of around 100,000 people across 140 countries.

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[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Kind of a shit title. Making a link as the study does, is not the same as causation as the title states.

Is it social media making people unhappy? Or is it youth who suffer the ills of stalled or rescinded educational opportunities, careers stunted, lifestyles inflated away, the property ladder was pulled up, precarity the norm and a dystopian prospect for a career in a world dominated by a rearming and war to deal with the fallout of ecological overshoot and climate change. Then with no job to do, they use social media to kill their days.

Yeah, anything to avoid the truth. This article is avocado toast levels of stupid.

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I see where you’re coming from and I actually don’t disagree: the world is shit in many ways and effective communication about it will naturally bum us out, make us anxious, or straight-up depress us.

However, we do have plenty of evidence that surveillance capitalist social media itself is responsible for declines in happiness. We understand the mechanism: the algorithm. The algorithm plays with people’s insecurities to make them anxious and keep them hooked on the apps. This is well understood at least since the late 2010s.

You can check out Netflix’s Social Dilemma, the Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, or Jaron Lanier. In fact, they are the reason I quit surveillance capitalism and I’m on Lemmy.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 1 points 35 minutes ago

Fully agree. But I think dopamine hacking and engagement are tertiary to the very real and tangible crises that are surrounding the majority of people.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

"Maybe you wouldn't be so sad about the way we repeatedly bomb children and never get punished for it if you couldn't post about it?" - world leaders (actually)

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 0 points 7 hours ago

Ignorance is bliss.

[–] Jaegeras@piefed.social 4 points 9 hours ago

But will anyone unhappy do anything about it? No.

Because so long as people run around wanting to feel all warm and fuzzy inside over how validated their little opinions are, they won't leave.

[–] FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Social media is all about comparison

Someone is happy with their doo-dad, until someone else has a different (not necessarily better) doo-dad

Someone enjoyed their holiday destination, until they saw someone else's edited and curated holiday destination, and suddenly, what they were perfectly happy with now seems inadequate

I don't gauge my happiness by what other people have, or what they're doing

I've had nothing, and I have been rich. Apart from the security that wealth brings, the "stuff" that people think is important has never mattered to me

I have a motorbike that I got second hand that's almost 20 years old. I bought the first car of my life (I was born in the 1970s) about six months ago, and I got the cheapest car I could find

I'm happy

Not because of what I own, but because of what I value

I pity anyone who is influenced by social media, and if they're of my age, I see them as weak.

It's difficult for kids who have known no different, and they have my sympathy, because I don't know how they're supposed to negotiate these waters, particularly when their pathetic parents can't do any better

[–] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 3 points 4 hours ago

This is the kind of emotional intelligence that the vast majority of the population lack. And I am not sure how we can get more folks to get to this point.