The Internet makes people happier because it makes them think they’re better off - Evidence from China and Germany
- The subjective well-being (SWB) of people increasingly concerns policymakers
and economists alike. But what matters, after basic income concerns are satisfied,
has sparked debates. Social comparison theory (SCT) offers an intuitive answer,
which explains happiness as an outcome of comparisons to the social environment
and past experiences. Examining this theory as a potential determinant of wellbeing,
we discover that the advent of the Internet has led to a dramatic shift in
parameters, potentially magnifying the impact of social comparisons.
For a number of reasons, China and Germany serve as an ideal testing ground for
the hypothesised relations: Both share a surprisingly similar SWB trajectory, but,
whereas China has recently experienced a rapid expansion of Internet access,
Germany already saw widespread adoption of this technology for over a decade.
Therefore, looking at survey data from the China General Social Survey from 2011
to 2015, promised to yield conclusive answers about this triangular relation.
Findings suggest that, first, social comparison concerns predict subjective wellbeing
better than any objective measures. Second, only in China was spending
more time online associated with an improved life satisfaction and better social
comparison outcomes. Here, having access was more important than the
frequency of use. This could imply that individuals initially gain immensely from
the introduction of the Internet, in terms of social comparison outcomes, but that
those effects wear off over time.