Public Report

Social media’s impact on feelings of happiness

Girl (16): “For me, I think that social media have a positive influence. Because nowadays, take TikTok for example, there is actually just a lot of positivity.” Figure 3 shows that more than half of teens (54%) think that social media have a good influence on how happy they feel and a quarter of teens think that social media have a bad influence. The influence of social media on feelings of happiness differs from person to person, according to our latest research. Social media use have a positive effect on one person, a negative effect on another, and no effect on another. How do teens themselves experience the influence of social media? 3

Boy (16): "TikTok has ruined my attention span, so to speak, so I was like okay, you know, I'm quitting in March. It is not okay.”

Figure 3 - Perceived influence of social media on happiness