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Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#51

Post by andix »

I think it's crucial to find out why this is happening. "Other than cell phones, I don’t have anything" is not good enough as a conclusion. It's the most obvious thing, but it could have numerous other reasons.

It should be possible to extend this research with other factors. There must be a few participants that rarely use smartphones and the internet. Do they show the different results?

If the source is the internet (social media, online videos, ...) we really need to learn more about this. What exactly makes it that harmful.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#52

Post by andix »

iwanttocomment wrote: post #2

Hey, Gen Z. Gen X here. I personally think this whole "young adulthood is the happiest time of your life" is some sort of bizarre Boomer artifact, and certainly wasn't in play in the late '80s or '90s. I was told that repeatedly when I was a teenager, but it certainly wasn't the case for me or most of the people I knew when I was a young man, 35 years ago. We were all totally blindsided by how bad the high school exp…

I think this research is based on hard facts and numbers, and not on the memories boomers tell about their youth.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#53

Post by big-green-man »

andix wrote: post #51

I think it's crucial to find out why this is happening. "Other than cell phones, I don’t have anything" is not good enough as a conclusion. It's the most obvious thing, but it could have numerous other reasons. It should be possible to extend this research with other factors. There must be a few participants that rarely use smartphones and the internet. Do they show the different results? If the source is the interne…

In my mind, and this isn't science, just observation, the two main problems are loneliness and not being able to afford what was in decades past a "normal life." I think the internet and smartphone have a large role in the lonelinesses part. All in all, a teenager has this idea that when they're an adult they'll start living life, and then they get there and they can't start a family and have a home of their own because they can't meet people and afford to get going.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#54

Post by andix »

standardUser wrote: post #39

Youth are happier with more regimentation and now they have less. Adults are happier with less regimentation and now we have... less! It's tough to be a kid in an increasingly diverse and changing society. Especially when they are on the forefront of that cultural transformation and have to face relentless attacks from a large part of the adult establishment. We probably need new and different ways to teach and engag…

If you're an average person and don't require acceptance of diversity, the whole topic is miniscule. There are some newspaper articles discussing it, you just skip them, because you don't care. A new coworker tells you to call them with some pronoun, you use that pronoun, as easy as remembering their name. You might walk past a rainbow flag, without even noticing it.

It's not relevant to the majority, unless they want to obsess about it and want to feel offended by it.

But maybe the need to find something to be obsessed and feel threatend about is exactly the issue here. It can be anything that's different than it used to be. It might be also something that is exactly as it used to be and doesn't change.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#55

Post by andix »

Twisell wrote: post #35

From the article conclusion : > “What you need here is something that starts around 2014 or so, is global and disproportionately impacts the young—especially young women,” he says. “Anybody that comes up with an explanation has got to have something that fits that. Other than cell phones, I don’t have anything. I don't now maybe seing consequences of global climate change with your bare eyes and noticing most of boom…

I don't think so. It's probably a real threat to human survival, but most people lack the perspective to recognize that. Humans are great at denial.

I guess not even the majority see climate change as the biggest threat, there are people who see an equal threat solely in vaccinations or diversity. For others it might be immigration, war or economy.

Maybe the difference is that we invented devices and services to easily share our fears and communicate them to others. 15 years ago most people weren't equipped with the tools to keep a constant stream of new information about "their" biggest fear alive. They might have read a book about it, some articles on the internet, or a documentation on TV. But getting that information needed some effort. Like getting some screen time on the family PC (which took minutes to boot up), going to the book store, or renting a DVD. It was something that you did maybe twice a month. Today everyone can open their favourite apps at any time and get new content about "their" fear multiple times a day. The social media platforms even keep suggesting those new pieces of information, so you see them also if your intention was only to watch some cat videos to calm down before going to bed.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#56

Post by toomuchtodo »

skdotdan wrote: post #45

As an anecdotal data point, I’m happier than in my early and mid 20s, and I have hope for my 30s.

Would you be willing to share what is causing your unhappiness, and what has caused the changes you mention and optimism for the future?

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#57

Post by [deleted] »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #43
toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheaper not to have them and risk the outsized long term financial obligation. ~43% of first marriages fail, ~60% of second marriages, ~73% third marriages. Roughly half of all children will see the parents’ marriage fail or them separate (per the CDC).

Those numbers are a lot lower for people whose first marriage is in their 30s and/or those who are financially stable. (Each of those ~halves the risk of divorce).

[deleted]

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#58

Post by qwerpy »

iwanttocomment wrote: post #2

Hey, Gen Z. Gen X here. I personally think this whole "young adulthood is the happiest time of your life" is some sort of bizarre Boomer artifact, and certainly wasn't in play in the late '80s or '90s. I was told that repeatedly when I was a teenager, but it certainly wasn't the case for me or most of the people I knew when I was a young man, 35 years ago. We were all totally blindsided by how bad the high school exp…

I think it's counterproductive to tell people that "this time of your life is the best, you better enjoy it". People are different and framing something like that as a universal truth means that anyone who didn't have a good time somehow missed the best time of their lives.

That being said, I'm curious why it seems fairly widespread that everyone had a bad time when they were young. Am millennial, grew up in the 80s and 90s and went to college in the 00s. Junior high was fine. High school was fun. College was great. Afterwards, in adulthood, I think pressure at work caused me the most consistent unhappiness of my life, but I got better at dealing with that over time.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#59

Post by andix »

big-green-man wrote: post #53
andix wrote: post #51

I think it's crucial to find out why this is happening. "Other than cell phones, I don’t have anything" is not good enough as a conclusion. It's the most obvious thing, but it could have numerous other reasons. It should be possible to extend this research with other factors. There must be a few participants that rarely use smartphones and the internet. Do they show the different results? If the source is the interne…

In my mind, and this isn't science, just observation, the two main problems are loneliness and not being able to afford what was in decades past a "normal life." I think the internet and smartphone have a large role in the lonelinesses part. All in all, a teenager has this idea that when they're an adult they'll start living life, and then they get there and they can't start a family and have a home of their own beca…

I don't think that poverty and money has such a big effect on happiness, as long as the basic needs are covered (food and a dry/clean bed to sleep). There was a lot of happiness in Eastern European countries during the communist time. They were lacking so many things and they saw many human rights violations, but it didn't break the majority of people. Many people still have a lot of good memories about that time, although the circumstances weren't easy at all.

Re: Young adulthood is no longer one of life's happiest times

#60

Post by andix »

itronitron wrote: post #23
iwanttocomment wrote: post #2

Hey, Gen Z. Gen X here. I personally think this whole "young adulthood is the happiest time of your life" is some sort of bizarre Boomer artifact, and certainly wasn't in play in the late '80s or '90s. I was told that repeatedly when I was a teenager, but it certainly wasn't the case for me or most of the people I knew when I was a young man, 35 years ago. We were all totally blindsided by how bad the high school exp…

In the USA at least I hope young people realize the extent to which they are being ripped off by its universities and colleges. In-state tuition now costs about what private ivy-league tuition did in the 1990's. Meanwhile, if you are attending university in the EU and you are an EU citizen your tuition is free. Let that sink in.

Still the happiness levels seem to drop in both "systems" equally.
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