I don't know if it's the wording used here or the actual study itself, but this all just seems wrong somehow. Like I'm not arguing against the fact that everything is completely fucked everywhere at the moment, and that obviously hits the youth hardest. But the way this is framed is just kinda stupid I feel.
"Traditionally, happiness followed a U-shape, with youth being a peak period, but it now increases with age instead." Has this claim ever really held water? And according to which tradition exactly? Also define "youth".
"Researchers link this shift to social media, cyberbullying, and reduced social interaction." ah yes, it's those pesky Iphones again! Thankfully it's not, for an example, the actual algorithms themselves in use at said social media, or the reluctance from the profiteers (of the widespread unhappiness of youth) to actually change these algorithms in order to protect the in cases extremely young user base of these, despite constant promises to do so, take Meta and Zuck's talks for an example. But then again, fascists do what fascists do, so straight up lying from these kinds of people shouldn't really be surprising anymore to anyone.
Or could it be that no-one knows how to deal with feeling bad? I, personally, started feeling bad when I was around 15 or 16 years of age, and it didn't really stop until some 3 years ago finally. So roughly about 15 years went by. There are many reasons why I started feeling bad, and kept on feeling bad for so long, but from what I've gathered from these years is that parents in general are left too much on their own devices to give their children the tools with which to deal with strong (negative) emotions, literally what to do when you feel bad. I eventually found help through a certain kind of behavioral therapy, because the extent to which my strong emotions affected and had affected my behavior and actions was basically what kept on fueling my bad feelings and general inability to live (and also large sums and amounts of prescribed antidepressant, anti-psychotic and sedative medications, all of which did fuck-all towards improving the quality of my life by themselves. Only with therapy, which was difficult and expensive to find and acquire access to).
There are parts in this fork of therapy, especially in the topic of emotional regulation skills, that could and should be integrated into the strategy of general upbringing pretty much everywhere. The parents should know how to bring up their kids to have the ability to learn more about these skills (and their importance to life in general) especially coming into teenage, which is a tumultuous time emotionally and behaviorally for everyone I think.
So, a revamping of upbringing seems to be in order, but what's stopping us? Oh yes, what causes every evil in this world: money, or lack thereof.
"[This] may have significant consequences that affect education, workforce participation, and productivity", oh no, not the productivity! WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE SHAREHOLDERS! Never mind the kids, but think of all the fat stacks they are losing due to their wage-slaves not feeling good in a world controlled by capitalism! Whatever shall we do? Well what do we always do? Start a few new wars or something, that should distract them for a while, while simultaneously culling enough people to make it seem like the standard of living has increased. That should buy a few decades or even centuries to make more money.
Fucking hell.
He's probably a grade-A bootlicker for the fascists, specifically for those sucking each-others' toes in the White House. Conservatives and cis-people tend to be weird like that I've heard. Which is good for those in charge, as the people crave for TikTok for its druglike addictive qualities and thus the current King (bless His orange visage) in the White House (long may He reign) would get more of the people's approval, while having bootlickers like these dudes in charge of it He'd also appease the zionists' thirst to kill, rape, pillage, burn, enact genocide and rule over every muslim and muslim territory in the area, specifically right now the Palestinians, unimpeded, by blocking everything that even slightly smells of being pro-Palestine.