Social media is eroding your happiness with each scroll.

      The longer you spend scrolling, the more your happiness diminishes.

      Doom-scrolling is particularly detrimental. What begins as “just five minutes” can stretch into an hour or more, leaving you feeling worse about your life. I had to remove Instagram from my iPhone to stop myself from wasting countless hours each night.

      If you've experienced that sense of despair after a scrolling binge, research supports that feeling. The World Happiness Report from the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford has identified a strong connection between high social media usage and decreased well-being, particularly affecting younger individuals, especially girls, in Western countries.

      As reported by the BBC, researcher Michael Plant notes that moderate social media usage is acceptable. “Using social media for an hour a day is good, it keeps you connected,” he says. However, increased time spent on these platforms correlates with worsening well-being.

      Is social media becoming the new tobacco for younger generations?

      The report indicates that well-being has significantly declined among those under 25 in countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and the UK over the past ten years, paralleling the surge in social media use.

      Although Plant was initially doubtful, he states that the evidence is now undeniable. Today's youth aren't engaging in smoking or drinking as much as past generations (alcohol sales are at an all-time low), but they are heavily involved in social media, which is designed to keep their attention.

      Multiple studies have shown that social media addiction and doom-scrolling contribute to poorer mental health and heightened stress and negativity among young people.

      So, what can be done about it?

      Sydney Grows, a fitness creator on TikTok since 2021, understands both aspects. She enjoys her work, but admits that one negative comment impacts her more than a hundred positive ones.

      The reality is that social media is here to stay. Plant indicates that the government is unlikely to step in for adults, and the platforms certainly won’t intervene either. The onus is on you. If browsing through reels makes you feel worse about your life, it could be time to take a break and engage in conversation with someone instead.

      I also suggest utilizing the built-in features of Android and iOS to limit your time on social media apps. It’s more effective if a friend knows the password to bypass the limit, as otherwise, you may ignore it. You might also consider switching to one of the new minimalist phones that do not offer such apps.

      The first step is to acknowledge your addiction and then take the necessary actions to control it.

      Rachit is an experienced tech journalist with over seven years of expertise in consumer technology coverage.

      The police have weighed in and are calling for social media bans for users under 16.

      UK law enforcement is no longer waiting for tech companies to address these issues. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have jointly requested that children under 16 be barred from any social media, gaming apps, or AI that do not disable what they consider "high-risk" features. This is part of a broader discussion by the UK government on the potential implementation of a complete social media ban for users under 16, according to the BBC.

      Meta has developed a Reddit competitor from Facebook Groups.

      Meta has discreetly introduced Forum, a Facebook Groups app that organizes community answers into a new standalone interface. This app provides Groups with a dedicated space for discussions, recommendations, and replies that would typically be found on Facebook. For anyone who has sifted through years of group posts in search of useful information, Forum appears to be Meta’s effort to make that knowledge more accessible without redirecting users to the main feed.

      AI is empowering users on 4Chan who request to alter images of women without consent.

      4chan has emerged as a hub for AI image exploitation, with anonymous users soliciting editors to transform ordinary photographs of women into synthesized sexual images without their consent. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue analyzed 7,616 English-language posts from December 2025 to March 2026 and discovered that 2,927 contained references to nudification or image alteration. WIRED adds that a culture of requests and rewards exists where those creating these fakes are viewed as skilled individuals.