One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

My take is that this is a counterpoint to the dominant media narrative that covid and lockdowns have been detrimental to the mental heath of nearly every child, usually based on anecdata. So even if these results _aren't_ different from a normal year, that's still meaningful.

I think this is the crux of their conclusions too:

> While the pandemic has undoubtedly had negative consequences for many, it is important to keep in mind that this is not the case for all children and young people.

Breaking news: half of people happier than average!

Makes complete sense to me - I was able to focus on doing my best work, and really fell in love with Computer Science for the first time.

Ugh... 'happier' is a strong conclusion.If I had to guess the actual effect probably is something along the lines of people having more time for themselves, taking a break from society, and realizing they're stressed for no reason most of the time.

This is not to say that the lockdown made anybody happier.I'm willing to bet the causal factor is the fact that people experienced a little bit of isolation, "me-time", took a break from the daily noise(especially the majority of people who spend too much time on social media).

I want to see the more in-depth numbers: how many of those who reportedly stated that they felt happier during lockdown were using social media and/or were 'over-socializing' to the point that their own happiness was tied to other people's expectations?

So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change.

Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things.

By phrasing the headline result as "1 in 3 felt happier," it creates a narrative where there likely isn't one. You imagine the 33% were this solid block of people feeling much happier. But, re: the gaussian distribution, its likely very few were at the extremes, and most were clustered towards the middle.

Textbook clickbait. It invites you to react with your emotional, anecdotal feelings about what this means to you, as if there was any interesting finding there.