Join us for a special event to celebrate International Day of Happiness, on this year's theme of Social Media and Happiness.
How can we build a happier relationship with social media?
At this special live event, our expert panel will explore the links between social media and happiness, highlighting the potential challenges for our wellbeing as well as practical ways we can all use tech for good.
Prof Jonathan Haidt will share research from his bestselling books and how young people can go from The Anxious Generation to The Amazing Generation.
Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve will share new insights from the World Happiness Report 2026, which examines links between social media and wellbeing.
Dr Mark Williamson will host the event and help us all take away practical actions to build a happier relationship with social media.
To see the start time in your time zone, click here
About the speakers
Prof Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis (2006) and of the New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind (2012), The Coddling of the American Mind (2018, with Greg Lukianoff), The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024), and The Amazing Generation: Your guide to fun and freedom in a screen filled world (2025, co-written with Catherine Price).
Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is the Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre and Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the Saïd Business School at Oxford and an editor of the World Happiness Report and the co-founder of the World Wellbeing Movement. Jan obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. Jan co-authored the first major textbook on wellbeing science, Wellbeing: Science and Policy (2023), with Lord Richard Layard, and his book with George Ward, summarising their research on wellbeing in the workplace, is forthcoming with Harvard Business Press.
Dr Mark Williamson is the Director of Action for Happiness and has led this social movement from an idea on paper to a thriving community with over 780,000 members in 100+ countries. He was previously Director of the Innovation unit at the Carbon Trust, Senior Manager at Accenture, and worked at Hewlett-Packard Labs and Orange. Mark has an MBA from IMD business school in Switzerland, where he received the President's Award for outstanding achievement. He holds a PhD and first class honours degree in Electronics. Mark’s forthcoming book, Make Life Happier: 23 Practical Ways to Feel Better, Find Meaning and Make a Difference, will be published in April 2026.
