Report finds falling happiness among youth of North America and western Europe, but rise in sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Europe

Young people are becoming less happy than older generations as they suffer “the equivalent of a midlife crisis”, global research has revealed as America’s top doctor warned that “young people are really struggling”.

Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, said allowing children to use social media was like giving them medicine that is not proven to be safe. He said the failure of governments to better regulate social media in recent years was “insane”.

Murthy spoke to the Guardian as new data revealed that young people across North America were now less happy than their elders, with the same “historic” shift expected to follow in western Europe.

Declining wellbeing among under-30s has driven the US out of the top 20 list of happiest nations, the 2024 World Happiness Report revealed.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, said allowing children to use social media was like giving them medicine that is not proven to be safe. He said the failure of governments to better regulate social media in recent years was “insane”.

    Everything’s unaffordable, the world is on fire and we’re doing somewhere between “too little, too late” and “nothing”, you can barely own anything anymore (only subscribe/rent), owning a house is a pipe dream for many, on top of all that, the Nazis are back, and more.

    But yeah, let’s blame social media for the kids being unhappy. If they don’t know about all this bad stuff, they won’t be unhappy about it. Genius!

    Have they finally moved on from blaming video games for everything?

    • Neato@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      People see the harms of social media but forget how connected it can help make people. There’s a LOT of people who would be stuck, isolated from any peers without social media. It’s why shitheels like DeSantis wanting to block kids from accessing social media is not a welcome change. There’s a lot of vulnerable people who would otherwise stay uninformed and sheltered without it. It certainly has it’s downsides but people could say the same thing about the internet itself and no one’s calling to ban that.

      • big_slap@lemmy.world
        1·
        6 months ago

        People see the harms of social media but forget how connected it can help make people.

        the best thing the internet did was connect all the “smart” people to each other. the worst thing the internet did was connect all the “dumb” people to each other.

      • Shirasho@lemmings.world
        1·
        6 months ago

        The irony being the video game industry is currently one of the most unstable and corrupt industries right now. Video game CEOs are raking in money while the actual creatives are being fired left and right. There is serious brain drain and a mental health crisis is occurring.