The new generation feels less happy than previous ones as they suffer from a crisis, similar to the midlife crisis, as claimed by the authors of the World Happiness Report 2024. They also point out that social media is largely responsible for this unpleasant situation.
Moreover, young people in North America and Western Europe are less happy than those living in Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, according to the report published by The Guardian.
This fact indicates that material goods are not always correlated with happiness. According to Dr. Vivek Marti, a general surgeon in the US, allowing children to use social media is like giving them drugs that are not proven to be safe. He also emphasized that the government’s handling of regulating social media conditions has been unsuccessful.
The American professor highlighted that more and more young people in North America are now less happy than their elders. The same trend is expected to prevail in Western Europe. Declining prosperity among individuals under 30 has led the US out of the top 20 happiest countries list, as revealed by the World Happiness Report 2024.
The American professor described the findings of the report as a “warning bell” for young people who are struggling with problems both in the US and in other countries around the world. He also expects to see evidence showing that social media platforms will become safe for children and adolescents, while at the same time calling for international action to improve their influence on young people’s daily lives.
British people under 30 ranked 32nd in the World Happiness Report, with the country behind Moldova, Kosovo, and even El Salvador, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
On the contrary, British people over 60 entered the top 20 happiest generations in the world. At the same time, the US dropped eight places in the overall happiness ranking and is in 23rd place, but when only those under 30 were asked, the US ranked 62nd, behind Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, and Bulgaria.
It should be noted that if only the opinions of people aged 60 and over were taken into account, the US would be the 10th happiest country. “For the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially young people are the least happy age group,” the report says.
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For Professor Vivek Marti, American teenagers spend nearly five hours a day on social media, and one-third stay awake staring at social media until midnight. According to the list of happiest and unhappiest countries, Greece ranks 64th, dropping six places compared to 2023 when it was in 58th place on the list.
Regarding young people under 30, Greece ranks 53rd. The report does not reveal the causes of the changes, but its conclusions come amid strong concerns about the impact of increasing social media use, income inequalities, housing crises, and fears of war and climate change.
The World Happiness Report monitors subjective well-being using respondents’ assessments of their lives and their positive and negative emotions. Once again, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland were the top three happiest countries.
Costa Rica and Kuwait were the two countries that entered the top 20 of the World Happiness Report for the first time, while Germany dropped from 16th to 24th. Afghanistan and Lebanon remained at the bottom of the list as the two least happy nations.
Countries experiencing increasing happiness include many African nations, Cambodia, as well as Russia and China. Childhood well-being and emotional health may be the best predictors of life satisfaction in adulthood, as noted by the authors of the report.
Previous research has concluded that adolescents and young adults who report greater life satisfaction earn significantly higher levels of income in their later lives, even due to differences in education, intelligence, physical health, and self-esteem.
