Today’s big topic: Young people are ashamed of their excessive use of screens and social media
Like most other young people, 19-year-old Ellen Hollingbery wants to spend her time on something that offers more value and knowledge than doomscrolling on social media. But it’s hard to break a habit you were born into.
What’s happening?
A new research project from the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) shows that more than half – 55 percent – of people over 35 say they spend too much time on their phones. Zoom in on the younger generation, and dissatisfaction with their own screen time runs even deeper: 73 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds believe they spend too much time on their phones. One in three say ’way too much time’.
»Relatively little of it (time on the screen, ed.) gives me any real value, but I almost can’t help myself. I feel like a smoker who needs to have something in their hands all the time«, says one of the 600 young people interviewed by peers as part of the study.
Several say they’ve lost control of their time, which instead gets sprinkled away – almost automatically – on social media platforms and tech giants they don’t even like.
»I don’t like that it’s often an unconscious decision that I pull out my phone and go on Instagram, for example. And I get sucked into things I hadn’t really planned to get sucked into, and I’m influenced by all kinds of stuff«, as one respondent puts it.
The same trends appear in the Danish Youth Council’s (DUF) new democracy analysis, to be published Tuesday. Over the past two years, trust in the tech giants that provide social media, messaging services and A.I. chatbots has plunged.
Why it matters!
Many might assume young people’s heavy screen use is mindless and uncritical. But the study shows that young people’s civic values actually resemble those of their parents and grandparents.
The lead author, Søren Schultz Jørgensen, highlights the study’s central finding: that the younger generation, to the same extent as older people, emphasizes the importance of keeping up with the news, being critical of sources and seeking out knowledge beyond their own circles.
»What we document is that young people are being held hostage by social media. That’s especially interesting when you put it up against their civic ideals – their ideas of what you should do, and what they actually do. They feel disgust with their own media behavior, they feel guilty, and they feel shame«, says Søren Schultz Jørgensen, an associate professor at DMJX.
»The paradox isn’t that young people lack trust in social media. We’re very aware of the problems, we’re worried about misinformation, and we try to assess the credibility of sources. The paradox is more that social media has become the infrastructure for how many young people encounter the world, and then we try to navigate a digital environment that is problematic, but also necessary«, says Anneline Larsen, DUF’s chair.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Troels Lund: Far from everyone is willing to help steer responsible economic policy
Venstre leader Troels Lund Poulsen (V) wrote in a post shared on Facebook that the first day of government talks, held in his role as royal investigator, was “filled with good conversations and discussions with many of the parties in the Folketing, and tomorrow we will continue with the last ones.”
»Meeting with every party in the Folketing and the North Atlantic members has been very important to me, and that is why it is entirely deliberate that all parties have been invited to the negotiations I am leading. Because no matter what a government looks like, we must be able to work together across the Folketing«, he wrote on Monday evening.
According to the royal investigator, today’s meetings were “a good opportunity to discuss the parties’ wishes for possible reforms that could improve the Danish economy. That is what we in Venstre want.”
– If your parents went to university, there is an ever greater chance that you will end up there, too.
If your parents went to university, a new analysis from the think tank DEA shows, there is an ever greater likelihood that you will end up there yourself. Today, nearly six in 10 young people with at least one parent who holds a master’s degree go on to earn a master’s degree themselves. Back in 2002, that was true for four in 10. At the same time, fewer children of academics – just 7 percent – now enroll in vocational education.
– Sharp criticism from Rigsrevisionen (The National Audit Office): The police are letting rape cases languish
The police are letting rape reports languish, which »creates a risk that rape reports that could have been solved end up being dropped because they were not handled in time«. That is the sharp criticism in a new report from Rigsrevisionen (the National Audit Office). The National Audit Office has examined police practices for dropping cases involving violent crimes against the person, including rape. Its conclusion is that the police largely do not follow the guidelines.
Talk of town: Four prominent AGF fans put words to the euphoria
AGF win the Superliga, and the championship was celebrated in Aarhus on Sunday, May 10, 2026. (Photo: Sebastian Elias Uth/Ritzau Scanpix)
The mood was euphoric Sunday night as AGF clinched its first championship in 40 years with a 0-2 road win over Brøndby IF. Since the last title, the Aarhus club have been through ups and downs, but Sunday everything went right for AGF and their eternally optimistic fans.
Since Sunday night, the internet has been flooded with videos from both Aarhus and Copenhagen, where ecstatic AGF fans are celebrating ’the big scalp.’ Politiken spoke with a number of prominent AGF supporters about the historic championship.
Rune Lykkeberg: Journalist, author, public commentator and editor-in-chief of Dagbladet Information. He is also an ambassador for AGF.
What does it mean to you that AGF are Danish champions for the first time in 40 years?
»This is a championship for the people the outside world doesn’t believe in. The ones who got passed over elsewhere and thrown out because they were too old. They were written off, and they were the ones who carried their teammates through when everything could have gone wrong.
AGF is a community that found strength in sticking together, even as it went from failure to failure. There are so many places in life where people bow out if something gets embarrassing or starts to look like social death. But AGF fans stayed put in the embarrassment. In the place where you’ve been ridiculed. And we stayed together and said: »This doesn’t touch us, because our pride is bigger than your scorn«. That’s why this isn’t just a championship. It’s a social triumph.
And AGF is still a club with a connection between the amateur side and the ownership. In a world where everything gets sold off to oligarchs and rich men, AGF shows you can push back against commercialization. We will never, ever be a toy for an oligarch. That’s why this championship means so much«.
Read the rest of the reactions here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.