What Makes Young People Happy
Tue 28 Aug 2007 – 16.01
I’ve been thinking about happiness lately, and what my answer would be to that profound questions ‘are you happy?’. Turns out a recent AP article covered the same topic for folks in our same age bracket. The answer is not sex, drugs and rock+roll, but rather family.
Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey … Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other. Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.
Good news for parents, especially those who might find this blog a mite depressing at times. We love you.
Of course the definition of happiness is very subjective. The example from the article is pretty generic, but one upon which I will build:
Stacy Rosales, a 23-year-old recent college graduate, defines happiness as “just a general stress-free feeling where I’m not really worried about anything. That makes me happy.”
I’d go that one step further and say that my own happiness is no so much the absence of stress, but rather the absence of confusion. Clarity, therefore, is synonymous with happiness — not necessarily that sort of oblivious euphoria that Rosales seems to claim. I’m afraid that lately my life seems to be dominated by doubt and confusion, with only moments of clarity. I suppose that’s what happens when you question everything.
I also find that happiness is not so much of a day-to-day emotion, but rather the net sum of your life over some more substantial period of time. For example, if you asked me to recall a happy time in my life, you’d get an answer like “the first half of 2004″ rather than “my sister’s wedding”. Instead of asking ‘are you happy?’, I think the question ‘are you satisfied?’ is much more thought-provoking and interesting if you truly wish to size up a person’s feelings and gauge his or her emotional state.
Regardles of my feelings and philosophies, the article is pretty interesting and aims to put some science behind our emotions and their ever hard-to-pin-down nature.
posted by Scott in life.
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