The intensive use of social networks harms the well-being of young people

The World Happiness Report, supported by the UN, highlights the impact of social networks at a time when many countries are considering adopting restrictions on minors’ access to these platforms. Australia was a pioneer in December, banning access to networks for minors under 16 years of age.

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Costa Rica appears in fourth place in the ranking and reaches the top five for the first time, the best historical placement for a Latin American country in the report.

The Central American country is the only one in Latin America in the top 10. They are followed by Mexico (12), Belize (27), Uruguay (31), Brazil (32), El Salvador (37) and Panama (39).

Instead, “drastic declines” in happiness were observed among those under 25 years of age in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and “especially among young girls,” according to the report.

On the contrary, there was an increase in the average happiness reported in other parts of the world.

“The majority of the world’s young people are happier today than they were 20 years ago, and that is a trend that deserves attention,” Jon Clifton, chief executive of Gallup, which contributed to the report, said in a statement.

The report highlights the “complex” way social media affects wellbeing.

Among the impact factors are the time spent on networks, the type of platform, how it is used, as well as demographic elements, such as gender and socioeconomic status.

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“Heavy use is associated with much lower well-being, but those who deliberately stay offline also seem to miss out on some positive effects,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the study’s editors and a professor of economics at the University of Oxford and director of its Center for Wellbeing Research.

Life satisfaction is higher when social media use is lower, according to data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which analyzes the internet activity of 15-year-old students in 47 countries.

Finland, Afghanistan

Data from Latin America indicates that platforms designed to facilitate social connections show a clear positive association with happiness, while those based on content defined by algorithms tend to demonstrate negative associations, according to the report.

Among the 147 countries included, the lowest level of life satisfaction appeared in Afghanistan, whose Taliban government, which returned to power in 2021, has been accused of human rights violations and “gender apartheid” against women.

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The happiness index, based on a three-year average, considers six factors: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life decisions, generosity and perception of corruption.

The Nordic countries remain at the top of the ranking, with Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway joining Finland and Costa Rica in the top six positions.

Filandia remained at the top of the ranking with a score of 7.764, on a scale of 10.

Juho Saari, professor of social and health policy at Tampere University, said Finland has major challenges, such as record unemployment and sharp cuts in social spending, but “despite all that, we are happy.”

“It tells us that politics doesn’t matter much,” he added, noting that people’s private lives are more important to understanding happiness.

The country of 5.6 million inhabitants usually registers high levels of trust in authorities and low levels of inequality.