World Happiness Report 2026: Heavy Social Media Use Linked to Lower Life Satisfaction Among Teenagers

Highlights

• Light social media use is linked to higher life satisfaction
• Teens show greater wellbeing variation at usage extremes
• Most teens spend under two hours a day on social media

Heavy social media use is linked to lower life satisfaction among teenagers, according to findings from the World Happiness Report 2026. The analysis is based on self-reported data from a subset of the OECD's 2022 PISA survey, covering more than 270,000 students aged 15 to 16 across 47 countries. The study examines how time spent on social media platforms relates to overall life satisfaction. The report notes that most studies focus on negative mental health outcomes, with fewer examining positive well-being measures like life satisfaction.

Teen Social Media Use Linked to Lower Life Satisfaction, Global Study Shows

According to the study, among girls, those who spent under an hour a day on social media reported the highest life satisfaction, with scores dropping as usage increased. Girls who spent more than five to seven hours a day on social media were significantly more likely to report low life satisfaction compared to light users.

Among boys, in Western Europe and English-speaking countries, light users reported higher life satisfaction than heavy users, while in other regions the differences were less pronounced. Across regions, both heavy users and non-users were more likely to report either very high or very low life satisfaction, showing a wider spread in how satisfied they felt with their lives.

The study is based on self-reported responses, where students were asked to estimate their daily time spent browsing social networks and rate how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale of zero to 10. Low life satisfaction was defined as scores between zero and four, while a score of 10 indicated complete satisfaction.

Heavy users were also more likely to report low life satisfaction. In Western Europe, girls who were heavy users were 63 percent more likely to report low life satisfaction than light users. Among boys in the same region, heavy users were 84 percent more likely to report low satisfaction. Similar trends were observed in Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.

The findings also show that most adolescents said they spent under two hours a day on social media, although this may not include time spent on video platforms. The highest share of heavy users was seen in Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa.

Social media use is widespread among adolescents, with around 78 percent globally active and teens in the US spending an average of 4.8 hours a day on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.