May 13, 2024

Internet use and wellbeing – a global study

The ubiquity of the internet in our lives is a topic of major debate. There are concerns that it could have a negative impact on our wellbeing and there’s a sense of urgency to create policies to tackle any harm that arises from its use. It’s therefore essential we try and understand the role the internet plays in or lives, both positive and negative. A new study in Technology, Mind and Behaviour has looked at data of internet usage and indicators of wellbeing from over 2 million individuals across 168 countries. Looking across multiple models and subsets of the data, they consider tens of thousands of associations to assess how access to the internet is related to wellbeing.

Journalists came to hear from the authors of the study on:

• why and how they carried out this research?
• what they found about the relationship between internet use and wellbeing, and whether this varies based on different characteristics such as country, age or gender?
• what this study is unable to tell us and what key questions remain about our relationship with the internet?

Speakers included:

Prof Andrew Przybylski, Professor of Human Behaviour and Technology, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Dr Matti Vuorre, Psychological Researcher, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University (The Netherlands)

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup.