A new British report published by IZA Institute of Labor Economics found that children between 10 and 15 who spend a minimum of one hour a day with social media are less content overall compared to those who do not.

Just one hour a day chatting on social media reduces the chance of being totally satisfied with life by about 14 percentage points.

The average teen spends an average of nine hours a day using electronic devices mostly on social media.

This is a parenting issue.

Parents have been too willing to let their kids entertain themselves on devices and watch movies over and over again from the backseat of a car.

1. It won’t work to try to take social media away from a teen.  It must be replaced with something else.  If you find that a difficult thought to grasp, think about increasing the happiness of your child by 15% right off the bat.

2. Have your teens keep a diary of how much time they spend on social media and how they felt afterward as an aid to self-discovery.  If children are younger, keep them away from social media madness.

3. Help teens build lives with more structured events that involve in-person social interaction such as sports, music lessons, after-school activities.

And all us moms and dads would also be wise to cut back on screen time that we can replace with human interaction because the happiness benefit likely applies to adults, too.

A happy person in the future will have a more balanced life both in the now and with the advantages that screens and mobile devices can bring.

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