Digital technology plays an important role in achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, access is uneven, with 80% of those in high-income countries being online compared to 20% of those in the 47 least developed countries. This study aimed to describe and analyse adolescents’ access to and usage of digital technology in Guinea-Bissau and its implications. In June 2017, a survey with a locally adapted Planet Youth questionnaire was implemented in the capital, Bissau, whereby classes in 16 secondary schools were surveyed on a variety of issues. In total, 2039 randomly selected students participated; the survey included ten questions specifically on the access to and use of digital technology. Half of the respondents had access to desktop/laptops, and one-third used mobile internet daily; about two-thirds had an experience of social media. Explanatory variables included educational institution, parental education, economic situation, and gender. Furthermore, students’ experience of social media was significantly linked to bullying, anxiety, depression, smoking and alcohol consumption. Many adolescents in Bissau have no experience of using digital technology, including for schoolwork. Access improvements are necessary so that young Bissau-Guineans are not to be left behind in developing their capabilities and can benefit from proficiency in the use of digital technologies. At the same time, potential harmful usage of the media requires the implementation of preventive measures.

Research has focused on the destructive effects of distress on professionals who work in ethically complex wards such as neonatal intensive units (NICUs). This article examines the accounts of health professionals, including nurses, pediatricians and assistant nurses, of their work at a NICU in Iceland. The aim is to understand how health professionals, who work under stressful conditions in an ethically sensitive ward, can counteract the negative sides of work too such a degree that they experience happiness. The collection of data was based on the ethnographic fieldwork, and the methods used were participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The professionals evaluated their wellbeing in line with conventional definitions of happiness. Working with children and opportunities to help others, engage in social relations and experience professional pride contributed to their happiness at work. Nonetheless, they did not dismiss the difficult experiences, and when confronted with these the professionals negotiated their meanings and the goals and priorities of work. In contrast to the findings of much quantitative and survey-based research, the professionals attributed constructive meanings to stress and argued that the positive experiences at work buffered the negative ones. Research on happiness would benefit from multifaceted methodological and theoretical perspectives. Thanks to its openness to the unforeseen, controversial, contradictory, and ambiguous aspects of human life, ethnography can contribute to happiness research and research on job satisfaction.