by Happiness, as is believed for a long time, a curve follows: it is high when someone is young, dips in the midlife and then rises again as people get older.
Scratch that – it might no longer be true.
A new research paper based on findings from six English -speaking countries suggests that young adults are much less happy than generations before them.
The United States -based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) of the United Nations commissioned by the United States, reveals a consistent decrease in the satisfaction of life and happiness in young adults in the past decade. Co-author of the San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge and Dartmouth University Economist David G Blanchflower, looked into data collected from 11 surveys in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.
But studies from other parts of the world seem to suggest that these results are also true there.
The conclusions of the study by Blanchflower and Twenge increase the long-term conviction that happiness follows a U-shaped curve.
How important is this shift – and what drives the increasing accident among youth?
What has the research found?
The researchers say that a decrease in the accident is especially clear among younger adults and adolescents from 12 to 25 years, of whom many are confronted with depression and psychological needs against speeds that are much higher than those who are only a few years older.
In the meantime, older adults still experience increasing life satisfaction with age.
The shocking shift has caused concern that younger generations are confronted with unprecedented challenges in a post-known world, especially with the rise of digital technology and economic uncertainty.
What is behind this generation of decline?
According to the findings of the study, there is a clear correlation between a decrease in happiness and increased internet use, in an era of smartphones and social media. That, the researchers say, is the most important point of difference between younger generations today and that for them.
The internet is the “most important competition” for the debt, Blanchflower told Al Jazeera. “Nothing else fits the facts.”
In 2024, a Pew research study showed that three in four American teenagers felt happy or peaceful when they were without their smartphones. Researchers behind a 2024 study show that British teenagers and preteen were the least happy in Europe, also concluded that social media were an important reason.
The statement of Blanchflower seems to be supported by research in other countries worldwide, including the Midden -Oost, Africa and Latin -America, where more and more young people are gaining access to smartphones.
Blanchflower, who worked on a similar study that African countries investigated, entitled The Mental Health of the Young in Africa“ Published by Nber in December 2024” Said, while about half of the population of the enormous continent has never used the internet, those who are more likely to show “psychological problems”.
“The absence of the internet can help explain why the mental health of young Africans has decreased less than elsewhere,” said the study. “However, there were dangers on the horizon while the sale of smartphones explodes.”
The research paper evaluated studies in dozens of African countries, all showing a U-shaped happiness curve, which suggests a correlation between low internet access and higher happiness levels in young people.
“It is clearly a global trend, mainly for those who are connected on the internet,” said Blanchflower.
According to Blanchflower, there are also indications that the happiness levels of middle -aged people who use smartphones are lower compared to their predecessors in previous generations at the same age that did not use smartphones or internet.
What more drives the decline?
Yet the internet and smartphones may not be the only drivers behind the fall in happiness among the youth.
The study suggests that economic hardships and loneliness can also be a contributing factor.
“A number of cultural forces can be to work that have had a negative influence on the satisfaction of life and views of society, including the decreasing social interaction, increased use of social media and increasing income inequality,” says the study.
The World Happiness Report in 2024 showed that young people younger than 30 years have seen a dramatic decline since the COVID-19 Pandemie. The fall in happiness is particularly sharp in the US, which fell from the 20 happiest countries of the index for the first time since the report in 2012.
The authors of the research say that more research will be needed to understand why young people seem to be increasingly unhappy, to help policy makers to come up with concrete steps to reverse this shift.
However, Blanchflower is doubtful about the prospects to reverse this trend.
“Healthcare is the decline of young people’s well -being,” said Blanchflower. “It spreads all over the world.”
He urged people to “get away from their phones” and communicate with others.
