The world has experienced a digital revolution that has affected countless aspects of our lives, posing both potential benefits and risks to our wellbeing. This column examines the impact of high-speed internet in Uruguay on young people’s socioemotional wellbeing. Young people report increased worry but reduced loneliness as access to high-speed internet grows. Dissatisfaction with oneself and increased risky behaviours are behind the detrimental effect. Educational and health systems should take preventive actions so that youth can take advantage of the internet while reducing emerging risks.
In recent years, the socioemotional wellbeing of youth and their relationship with new technologies has become a global issue and part of everyday public debate. There is extensive evidence that the burden of mental health disorders has increased globally, particularly in relation to anxiety, depressive, and conduct disorders (Piao et al. 2022, UNICEF 2021, WHO 2021, Monza and Cracco 2023). At the same time, the world has experienced a digital revolution that has affected countless aspects of our lives, posing potential benefits and risks to people’s wellbeing (ECLAC 2016, World Bank 2016).
Young people are particularly exposed to this phenomenon. Globally, 71% of people aged 15 to 24 are connected to the internet compared to 57% in other age groups (ITU 2021). The period of youth is a sensitive moment in life for socioemotional development, with various milestones and transitions that influence present and future wellbeing. For these reasons, understanding the relationship between internet accessibility and mental wellbeing during adolescence and youth is crucial.
Several studies have analysed this relationship from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Castellacci and Tveito (2018) provide a literature review on the topic. Overall, the literature finds negative effects of the internet on young people’s subjective wellbeing (McDool et al. 2020, Donati et al. 2022, Guo 2022, Arenas-Arroyo et al. 2022, Braghieri et al. 2022, among others). These effects are explained by factors such as the crowding out of time devoted to other activities, which is substituted by online time (Atalay 2024); changes in individuals’ reference groups (Sabatini and Sarracino 2018, Pénard et al. 2013); or a greater tendency towards addictive behaviour inducing self-control problems (Allcott et al. 2022, Scott et al. 2017). However, studies addressing this issue in Latin American countries are scarce, as are those that adopt a broader perspective regarding which mental health indicators to use.
High-speed internet and youth’s subjective wellbeing
In a recent study (Colombo et al. 2025), we identify the causal effect of high-speed internet on the subjective wellbeing of adolescents and young people in Uruguay. To do this, we take advantage of the implementation of a public policy aimed at universalising high-speed internet access and the expansion of the fibre-optic network. The significant expansion of high-speed internet to homes provides an exogenous source of variation, allowing us to overcome the usual endogeneity problems in estimating the effects of internet use (i.e. that internet users and non-users most likely differ in unobservable characteristics). These data are combined with the National Adolescence and Youth Survey, a nationally representative survey of adolescents and young people that collects information on socioemotional wellbeing through standard questions.
To estimate the effect of internet access, we use information on the situation of youth in 2013, at the beginning of the fibre-optic rollout, and in 2018, when deployment was nearly complete, across different regions of the country. That is, we exploit the variation across cohorts and geographic areas to estimate the effects of high-speed internet accessibility on outcomes that are not usually available in the surveys.
Our results show that going from 0 to 100% probability of access to high-speed internet causes a decrease of 9 percentage points in the probability of feeling “lonely”, but an increase of 9 percentage points in the probability of feeling “worried”. Given that the probability of access to fibre-optic network at home (or ‘fibre to the home’, FTTH) during the period increased, on average, to 83% from 30%, our estimation implies a 5 percentage point decrease in the probability of feeling lonely and an increase in the probability of feeling worried of the same magnitude. These effects are large considering the overall incidence of these problems.
Figure 1 Effects of high-speed-internet access on mental health
Regarding the use of health services, our results show an increase of 11 percentage points in the probability of making a medical visit but no observed effects in visits to a psychologist or psychiatrist.
Figure 2 Effects of high-speed-internet access on health services use
Overall, our results show a mixed effect of high-speed internet accessibility on mental health symptoms: on the one hand, it reduces the incidence of feeling lonely, but on the other, it increases the incidence of feeling worried and the likelihood of seeking medical attention. This points to the need to improve access to adequate mental health treatment and early detection in primary care, as suggested in previous literature (WHO 2018, UNFPA 2014).
Are benefits and risks the same for everyone?
An analysis by gender, age, region of residence, and educational background in the household shows that the negative effect on feeling worried is observed across all sub-samples. In contrast, the reduction in loneliness is mostly among boys and among individuals with lower educational backgrounds.
Our findings illustrate the complex effects of internet accessibility, where the use of new technologies results in both benefits and risks that also depend on background characteristics. In line with previous studies, girls and young people living outside the capital are particularly vulnerable groups (McDool et al. 2020, Arenas-Arroyo et al. 2022, Golin 2022, Guo 2022). There are no heterogeneous responses regarding medical visits.
What’s behind the detrimental effect on worry among youth?
Dissatisfaction with onself and increased risky behaviours emerge as the leading mechanisms behind the detrimental effect in terms of feeling worried. This aligns with previous literature showing that the internet increases social comparisons, altering satisfaction with different aspects of life (McDool et al. 2020, Sabatini and Sarracino 2018) and that exposing young people to substance-related content can increase consumption of psychoactive substances (Braghieri et al. 2022, Primack et al. 2009).
We find no evidence supporting the idea that internet consumption affects mental wellbeing by crowding out previous activities with new ones enabled by the internet. Nonetheless, the data do not allow us to estimate the total amount of time spent on each activity, so we cannot rule out changes in time allocation across different activities.
Concluding remarks
Young people use the internet as a way of being connected with others, but this may also entail negative consequences in other aspects of life. The rise of high-speed internet access brings both beneficial and negative effects on socioemotional wellbeing, making it essential that we better understand the relationship between the two phenomena.
Our study seeks to contribute to the public debate and to the design of evidence-based policies aimed at adolescents and young adults, for whom preventive actions are essential. For example, educational institutions could help students address the challenges of their relationship with the digital world and strengthen their ability to develop healthy internet use.
Similarly, health institutions could consider certain patterns of internet use as risk factors in their care protocols, especially in primary care. Our findings suggest that this initial contact with health professionals is particularly relevant for the adequate referral to mental health specialists, increasing early detection and reducing the treatment gap. Overall, policies should seek ways to leverage the opportunities offered by the internet while minimising emerging risks to young people’s wellbeing.
Source: cepr.org
