Daily use of the Internet generates the same feeling of comfort as taking a walk in the park. This is explained by Andrew Przybylski, professor at the University of Oxford, and Matti Vuorre, from the University of Tilburg, after discovering that people with Internet access were 8% more satisfied with their lives than those who did not have access to the Internet. “The differences in happiness between people who go for a walk and those who don’t are of a magnitude similar to what we see at this very high level between people who go online and people who don’t,” says Vuorre. . However, women between 15 and 24 years old who used the Internet were less happy, according to a macro study recently published in the magazine Nature.
It is the first sample to address internet access and well-being on a large scale: it analyzes internet access data from 2,414,294 people from 168 countries. “There are studies on that, but most have been small-scale in developed Western countries, usually English-speaking. It is a fairly new look,” says Matti Vuorre. Researchers have rescued data from the World Survey Gallup GWP conducted by the analysis company Gallup, between 2006 and 2021. Respondents were asked if they had access to the internet at home, if they had access to the internet on their mobile phone, and if they had used the internet in the last seven days, from a mobile phone. mobile phone, computer or other device. 11.3% of internet users between 15 and 24 years old are at high risk of compulsive use of digital services, according to a report of the National Observatory of Technology and Information Society (ONTSI).
For the study, the authors have taken into account eight indicators to assess “well-being”: life satisfaction, the degree of negative and positive experiences, social relationships, physical well-being, comfort in the place of residence and employee motivation. day to day. 84.9% of the results showed higher levels of satisfaction in all of them. To be transparent with the information and avoid uncertainty, they applied an analysis method called “multiverse” that consists of repeatedly fitting a similar model to different subgroups of data, using different predictors, results and variables. “What is your income level? What is your educational level? Do you have access to healthcare? We have to statistically adjust those types of variables in different ways, and different analyses. You have a question, but there are millions of ways to answer it mathematically,” explains Vuorre.
Cyberbullying and social networks
The perception of Internet use in young women is part of 0.4% of the negative experiences in the study. The results are consistent with previous reports on the increase in cyberbullying in that age range, and the relationship between social media and depressive symptoms, according to the authors. For Andrea Vizcaíno Cuenca, psychologist and CEO of Policlínica Maio and not involved in the study, the problem lies in social networks: “They encourage social comparison, especially among young women. Viewing carefully selected and edited images of others can lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. “Constant exposure to unrealistic beauty standards for women contributes to lower emotional well-being and a negative perception of the environment.” To measure community well-being, respondents were asked if the city in which they lived was a perfect place or if in the last 12 months they had done something to improve the area in which they lived. Girls who used the Internet confessed to being less happy with where they lived, according to the study. Przybylski says it could be because people who don’t feel welcome in their community spend more time online.
Cyberbullying is a serious problem that “disproportionately” affects young women, reveals Vizcaíno. 3% of 15-year-old girls in Spain claim to have suffered bullying at school at least two or three times a month, according to a report of the World Health Organization (WHO). Its effects can be “devastating” for mental health, such as increased levels of anxiety, depression and low self-esteem: “they can directly contribute to a negative perception of community well-being, as experiences of bullying can cause victims to become “They feel isolated and disconnected from their community,” adds Vizcaíno. One in six adolescents suffers from cyberbullying, representing an increase from 13% to 16% among girls and 12% to 15% among boys since 2023, according to the WHO. In this sense, the study calls for future research to look at whether low community well-being drives engagement with the internet or vice versa.
From internet to cinema
Although the debate between technology and well-being continues, it now seems unthinkable to live without the internet. Not everything is harmful in cyberspace and that is what the study tries to explain. The professor of Applied Sociology at the European University of Madrid, Rebeca Cordero, reflects on this: “We have to escape from that negative vision that the Internet is something bad or harmful. A well-used tool can generate well-being.” Digital disconnection can even decrease life satisfaction, as explained in another study in November of last year. Social media offers powerful social rewards, and restricting it can reduce positive emotions.
Despite this, experts such as health psychologist José Antonio Tamayo do not share the opinion of the study. Tamayo highlights that the GWP Global Survey is not a psychometrically validated instrument, and that the questions are based on a definition of “wellbeing” unique to GWP. Additionally, respondents’ responses present risks of recall bias, social desirability or conformity, he explains. Cordero also highlights a certain ambivalence: “When we talk about well-being it is a personal perception, what we do is study perceptions. I may have the feeling that what I am exposed to generates my well-being, but in reality it does not.” Tamayo also does not rule out that other factors intervene between Internet use and well-being, such as income level. The study does take economic differences into account, even though “data and model selection were limited.”
The use of the Internet among young people between 16 and 24 years old is a majority practice in Spain, with 99.9% in men and 99.7% in women, according to the Statistics National Institute (INE). To improve the user experience, experts propose a healthy and conscious use of technologies, as well as measures to combat cyberbullying and support mental health, especially in young women.
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