MONACO — Millenials are big fans of technology, in part because the Internet and social media lets them be themselves. That’s one of finding many findings of a global studyby Viacomtitled “The Next Normal: An Unprecendented Look at Millenials Worldwide.”

Beet.TV interviewed Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive VP and Chief Research Officer at Viacom Media Networks, at the Monaco Media Forum about the findings.

For the study, Viacom’s researchers spoke to 15,000 young people, age 9 to 30, in 24 countries about their attitudes towards the economy, technology, tolerance and what it means to be happy.

Fahey Rush tells us that about three-quarters of Millenials say social media has a beneficial effect on relationships with friends, and 73% said Internet access changes how they view the world. This generation has been affected by the economy, with 68% saying the global economy has impacted them, she explains.

But more than three-quarters of Millenials describe themselves as “very happy,” with young people in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil saying that the most often. Viacom conducts this sort of research to better understand the hopes and concerns of the audiences it’s trying to reach around the world with its programming, Fahey Rush explains.

More on this report by Emily Steel at the Financial Times.

-Daisy Whitney