Social media is eroding young people's happiness. Low-income teens may be most at risk.

MW Social media is eroding young people's happiness. Low-income teens may be most at risk.

By Venessa Wong

Heavy usage of certain types of social media may be contributing to a drop in youths' well-being, according to Gallup's new World Happiness Report

Researchers found the negative impact of social media on teens depends on "what platforms we're using, who's using them and how, as well as for how long."

As a trial about social-media addiction draws to a close in a Los Angeles court, Gallup says in its new World Happiness Report that youth well-being has declined sharply in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries, due in part to heavy social-media usage.

The U.S. ranked 23rd out of 147 countries for overall happiness when including both adults and children. That put the country behind, among others, New Zealand (11th), Ireland (13th) and Australia (15th). Meanwhile, Canada ranked 25th and the U.K. was 29th. This was the first time since Gallup's Happiness Report debuted in 2012 that none of those countries made the top 10.

Gallup's Top 10 Happiest Countries, 2026

-- Finland

-- Iceland

-- Denmark

-- Costa Rica

-- Sweden

-- Norway

-- Netherlands

-- Israel

-- Luxembourg

-- Switzerland

In Finland, which placed first in Gallup's ranking for the ninth year in a row, the prime minister expressed support earlier this year for banning social media for children under age 15. Lawmakers have already banned usage for children under age 16 in Australia, and France has passed a bill barring usage for those under age 15.

"Heavy [social-media] usage is associated with much lower well-being," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre and an editor of the World Happiness Report, in a statement. However, the impact also depends on "what platforms we're using, who's using them and how, as well as for how long."

The research noted that "social media, gaming and browsing for fun may be beneficial at low levels of use," and can be helpful in maintaining offline relationships, but "become increasingly harmful as time spent increases." Beyond five hours per day - the threshold for heavy use - the researchers observed well-being losses.

Research from Latin America, for instance, found that platforms centered on social connection - like WhatsApp and Facebook (META) - showed positive associations with well-being, while apps focused on algorithmic content - like X, Instagram and TikTok - show unfavorable ones, the Gallup report noted.

As for the amount of time spent on the apps, Gallup cited research that looked at 47 countries and found teens who use social media for less than one hour daily reported the highest levels of well-being - even higher than those who did not use social media at all. In other words, teens who were deliberately off social media "appear to be missing out on some positive effects," De Neve said.

Yet most young people far exceed one hour of daily usage. The average American teen spends about five hours per day on social media, including two hours on YouTube $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$, 1.5 hours on TikTok, and one hour on Instagram, according to data in the Gallup report.

A spokesperson for Meta said, "We want young people to have safe, positive and age-appropriate experiences on our apps" and noted the company has "built a range of safety tools and resources to support parents and their teens." Teen Accounts on Instagram, for instance, restricts what the user sees "to what they'd see in an age-appropriate movie," and with parental supervision, "parents can see who their teens have been chatting with, set daily time limits and schedule breaks during certain times, like during school or at night."

Other social-media companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment from MarketWatch.

A growing body of research also suggests that the impacts on teens may be felt unevenly based on family income. In an October poll by Pew Research, 54% of teens from households earning less than $75,000 annually said they use the internet "almost constantly" compared to 35% of those from households earning $75,000 or more.

Across income groups, YouTube was the most widely used app among teens in Pew's survey, followed by TikTok and Instagram.

Teens from lower-income households are also more likely to passively view content, and less likely to use their devices for research and learning, according to the Handbook of Adolescent Digital Media Use and Mental Health.

While parents can play a vital role in limiting and monitoring their children's social-media usage, teens from lower-income households also have "fewer adults who can scaffold digital support, which is critical given the increased risk for mental health symptoms," according to the handbook authors.

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-Venessa Wong

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March 18, 2026 20:01 ET (00:01 GMT)

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