A report has revealed that young people are becoming less happy than older generations as they suffer “the equivalent of a midlife crisis”.

The report added that global research has revealed that America’s top doctor warned that “young people are really struggling”.

The report by the Guadian UK quoted the researcher, a United States surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, as saying, “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 regulate social media in recent years better was “insane”.

Murthy told the UK news platform that 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.

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

After 12 years in which people aged 15 to 24 were measured as being happier than older generations in the US, the trend appears to have flipped in 2017.

The gap has also narrowed in western Europe and the same change could happen in the coming year or two, it is thought.


Murthy described the report findings as a “red flag that young people are really struggling in the US and now increasingly around the world”.

He said he was still waiting to see data that proved social media platforms were safe for children and adolescents, and called for international action to improve real-life social connections for young people.

The World Happiness Report, an annual barometer of wellbeing in 140 nations coordinated by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, showed “disconcerting drops [in youth happiness] especially in North America and western Europe,” said Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre and editor of the study.

“To think that in some parts of the world children are already experiencing the equivalent of a midlife crisis, demands immediate policy action,” he said.

The falling wellbeing scores for North America (in a grouping that includes Australia and New Zealand) “contradicts a well-established notion … that kids start out happier before they slide down the U-curve towards a mid-life crisis before [wellbeing] picks up again,” De Neve added.

British people under 30 ranked 32nd in the rankings, behind nations such as Moldova, Kosovo and even El Salvador, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates.

By contrast, the British over the 60s made it into the top 20 of the world’s happiest older generations. Earlier this month a majority of British teenagers told pollsters they expect their lives to be worse than the previous generation.

The US fell eight places in the overall happiness rankings to 23rd, but when only the under-30s were asked the world’s richest nation ranked 62nd – behind Guatemala, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria. If the views of only people aged 60 and over were accounted for, the US was the 10th happiest nation.

“For the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially for the young, so much so that the young are now, in 2021-23, the least happy age group,” the report found. In 2010 the young were happier than those in midlife.

The report does not reveal the causes of the changes, but they come amid increasing concern at the impact of rising social media use, income inequalities, the housing crisis, and fears about war and climate change on the happiness of children and young people.

Murthy said US adolescents were spending nearly five hours a day on social media on average and a third were staying up until midnight on week nights on their devices. He called for legislation “now” to reduce harms to young people from social media including limiting or eliminating features such as like buttons and infinite scrolling.

The World Happiness Report tracks subjective wellbeing using respondents’ own assessments of their lives and their positive and negative emotions. Once again Finland, Denmark and Iceland were the top three happiest countries.

Jukka Siukosaari, Finland’s ambassador to London, said his nation had managed to create an “infrastructure of happiness” including a “safe and secure environment”, affordable opportunities for people to express themselves culturally, and relatively equal incomes.

“It all begins with high levels of trust between citizens and our institutions,” he said.


Costa Rica and Kuwait were new entrants to the top 20. Germany dropped from 16th to 24th. Afghanistan and Lebanon stayed as the two least happy nations. Countries that enjoyed increasing happiness included many African nations, Cambodia, Russia and China. Serbia recorded the biggest increase in happiness.

Childhood wellbeing and emotional health may be the best predictor for adult life satisfaction, the report found.

Earlier research has concluded that adolescents and young adults who report higher life satisfaction earn significantly higher levels of income later in life, even accounting for differences in education, intelligence, physical health, and self-esteem.

Lord Layard, a Labour peer in the UK parliament and co-editor of the report, said child wellbeing should be a big issue at the general election expected to be held this year.

“We need pledges to upgrade mental health support teams and to make them universal across the country. And life skills should be taught in every school,” he said.


https://punchng.com/young-people-becoming-less-happy-than-older-generations-report/

Hmmm

Why would young people be happy when their future is blick

Tinubu and his criminal gang are looting and padding budget..
while they tell their zombie supporters to endure baby steps of pain..

186m to drill one borehole
Billions to renovate ghost schools

Nigeria Otilo

All thanks to social media.

People hardly have 3 trusted friends lately as physical conversations have been eradicated

ZombieTAMER:
Why would young people be happy when their future is blick

Tinubu and his criminal gang are looting and padding budget..
while they tell their zombie supporters to endure baby steps of pain..

186m to drill one borehole
Billions to renovate ghost schools

Nigeria Otilo

This is not about Nigeria, it's everywhere in the world. The young Chinese are even embarking on suicides.

Social media effects

Some have linked this to increase in Social Media use.

When you go online, you see many people posting their best life and some feel their lives are terrible compared to these pictures they are seeing.

You will be in Lokoja and be watching videos of someone in Lagos NewYork or Japan enjoying life(or in some cases packaging/pretending to enjoy) and makes them even more depressed.

Your secondary school friend who travelled to another city who just finished his daily laborer job will pose beside someone's parked Mercedes Benz and you will start feeling bad that you don't even have a bicycle

In the older generation you only see people within your local community or those printed on newspapers

raumdeuter:
Some have linked this to increase in Social Media use.

When you go online, you see many people posting their best life and some feel their lives are terrible compared to these pictures they are seeing.

You will be in Lokoja and be watching videos of someone in Lagos NewYork or Japan enjoying life(or in some cases packaging/pretending to enjoy) and makes them even more depressed.

Your secondary school friend who travelled to another city who just finished his daily laborer job will pose beside someone's parked Mercedes Benz and you will start feeling bad that you don't even have a bicycle

In the older generation you only see people within your local community or those printed on newspapers

The social media effects is actually real. I have watched several documentaries regarding this

helinues:


The social media effects is actually real. I have watched several documentaries regarding this

Shatap

The Rat Race has Been too Much ...

Globalisation & Capitalism is Feeding Deep into The Pysche of Younger Generations Fuelled By Social Media Not Many Younger Generations Including Their Parents & Guardians Understand The Realities of What's Happening, People Just tagged Along Like Zombies Until Realities Started Hitting Hard Then The Depressions Start popping Leading to Suicide(Sniper) Solutions!

Everyone wants to be Like Everyone Across The Globe Even When Your Ancestral Limitations & Societal Inhibitors Wouldn't allowed You to Achieve Your Wildest Dreams ... Depressions Sets In Then Other Vices Follows Reducing Your Happiness Index !

Nothing new! Young people have obsessed and intoxicated themselves with the worst of moral values and realities of life hence became disillusioned when reality is not matching their warped believe of what life should be.

helinues:


This is not about Nigeria, it's everywhere in the world. The young Chinese are even embarking on suicides.
Social media effects

There's no hope in Nigeria
It's hell on earth

ApC happened





Tinubu till 2031