Something the World Happiness Report 2026 reveals deserves more attention than it has received outside wellbeing circles. In Western Europe and English-speaking countries, young people who use social media for more than seven hours a day report significantly lower wellbeing than those who use it for under an hour. The most damaging platforms are not those that connect people, but those built on passive consumption and algorithmically curated content. The distinction is precise, and it matters beyond public health.
The WHR 2026 identifies a cluster of conditions accompanying heavy social media use: declining interpersonal trust, reduced perceived social activity, weakened emotional bonds, and a substitution of genuine connection with its digital simulacrum. Among Gen Z, these trends are most pronounced and most consequential.
In response, the generation that grew up entirely online is choosing to step away from it: scrapbooking, letter-writing, and in-person gatherings over algorithmically curated feeds. This is not mere nostalgia, but as the data suggests, a rational response to a measurable harm.
Recent reporting from ABC News adds some real on-the-ground context to this shift. The piece follows a growing number of young people turning to hands-on, physical forms of expression like scrapbooking, journaling, and film photography. People describe these activities as a way to slow things down, make something that actually lasts, and spend time with others without a feed constantly in the mix.
The ABC report also gets into how this is playing out socially. Small group meetups, craft circles, and phone-free hangouts are picking up steam among Gen Z, especially in cities. What’s interesting is the thinking behind it. These are pretty deliberate attempts to rebuild a sense of presence and genuine connection, often as a direct response to the exhaustion that comes with endless scrolling and highlight-reel content.
Security professionals, especially those working on human risk management, should read these findings carefully. The psychological profile that emerges from chronic passive consumption, diminished critical thinking, shortened attention span, reduced skepticism, and eroded trust in others maps almost perfectly onto the conditions that social engineering exploits.
Phishing, pretexting, and manipulation through urgency do not defeat technical controls. They defeat people. And they are most effective against people whose capacity for deliberate, reflective judgment has been quietly eroded.
The report also notes that platforms facilitating genuine communication show a positive association with wellbeing, in contrast to those optimized for engagement at the expense of meaning.
This too has an organizational corollary: security cultures built on authentic dialogue, psychological safety, and real human accountability outperform those built on compliance theatre. Behavior changes when culture changes. And culture, right now, is showing us that people are hungry for something real.
The human firewall is only as strong as the human behind it. Wellbeing data, it turns out, is security data.
Anastasios Arampatzis is a cybersecurity content strategist, writer, and consultant with expertise in cybersecurity, digital identity, and regulatory compliance. Tassos has a strong background in creating thought leadership content, marketing materials, and strategic communications tailored to CISOs, security professionals, and business leaders. He has contributed to various cybersecurity publications and collaborates with organizations to develop compelling, insightful content that addresses industry challenges. He is a privacy advocate and a member of the ISC2 Hellenic Chapter. Before joining Bora, Tassos was an Hellenic Air Force Officer with a solid background on IT and Infosec.
The opinions expressed in this post belong to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz.