Most young people around the world are happier today than they were two decades ago. That is genuinely good news. But it does not apply everywhere, and the exceptions are striking. Youth in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several Western European countries are bucking the global trend, reporting declining levels of well-being at a time when their peers elsewhere are doing better.
That is one of the central findings of this year’s World Happiness Report, released annually on March 20 in recognition of the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness. The report, produced in partnership with a major global polling organization and an independent editorial board, surveys residents of at least 140 countries each year, reaching roughly 96 percent of the world’s population through in-person and phone interviews conducted in respondents’ native languages.
While the report is perhaps best known for its annual ranking of the happiest countries, this year’s edition takes a harder look at a specific and timely question: what is social media doing to the people who use it most?
The trap that nobody can seem to escape
One of the more psychologically revealing findings in this year’s report involves not just how social media makes people feel, but why they keep using it anyway. Research analyzed for the report found that many young people spend time on social platforms primarily because their peers do, even though a significant portion of them would prefer those platforms did not exist at all.
The dynamic creates a kind of collective trap. The social pressure to remain present and connected online is strong enough to override individual preferences, even when people are aware that the experience is making them feel worse. Studies cited in the report found that people who stepped away from major platforms for a month reported feeling happier, less anxious, and less depressed during that time. And yet, when asked how much they would need to be paid to stay off those platforms for another month, the figure was surprisingly high, suggesting that the pull of social media operates somewhat independently of whether people actually enjoy it.
Who is most at risk
Heavy use appears to be the clearest dividing line between young people who are thriving and those who are not. Researchers found a consistent drop in well-being among youth who spent more than five hours per day on social media, with increased stress, more depressive symptoms, and a greater tendency toward negative self-comparison showing up reliably across the data.
Girls appear to be disproportionately affected. Analysis of survey data from 15-year-olds across multiple countries found that heavy female social media users reported significantly lower life satisfaction than their less-connected peers. In most regions studied, girls who did not use social media at all were actually the most likely to report being completely satisfied with their lives. The pattern was less consistent for boys, though heavy use still showed negative associations in certain regions.
The harm, researchers noted, is not simply about screen time in the abstract. It is about what people are exposed to while scrolling. Curated and idealized content creates a steady stream of social comparisons that gradually erode self-worth, particularly for users who follow influencers heavily or maintain accounts across multiple platforms.
Why your friends’ habits shape your experience
The impact of social media on any individual cannot be separated from the habits of the people around them. Research included in the report found that social media use tends to be relatively harmless or even beneficial when few people in a peer group are heavily engaged, but becomes increasingly damaging as more of one’s social circle spends significant time online. The harm compounds with exposure.
Generational patterns reflect this dynamic clearly. The effects of heavy internet use appear to be most negative for the youngest generation currently online, less pronounced for millennials, roughly neutral for Generation X, and marginally positive for baby boomers. The difference likely reflects both how much time each generation spends online and how deeply that time is tied to their social identity and sense of belonging.
What the research actually suggests doing
Researchers stopped short of recommending that young people abandon social media entirely, but they were pointed about where the real risk lies and what can actually help.
Limiting use to around one hour per day appears to offer the most meaningful boost to well-being, according to the report’s findings. Reducing comparison-heavy content, unfollowing accounts that consistently leave users feeling worse, and finding ways for peer groups to collectively step back, whether through phone-free meals, designated offline hours, or shared social media breaks, were all highlighted as practical approaches with evidence behind them.
Offline social connection emerged repeatedly as a protective factor. Trust, friendship, and real-world community were consistently linked to higher well-being across the report’s chapters. Replacing screen time with in-person activities rather than simply removing it appears to produce meaningfully better outcomes than going cold turkey without a substitute.
