Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a really toxic country and are inundated with information about horrible things that happen here and abroad. People who are all sorts of "-phobic" have larger platforms now to spew hate at people who don't deserve it and should be allowed to just live. I can't imagine not experiencing some depression in this environment, unless you're entirely checked out and not paying attention. And the children have no reason to believe any of this will improve during their lives. It's just a dark but true reality.

You need to read both Learned Optimism and The Anxious Generation. Attitudes like this take everything cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people to do and does the reverse. So yes, of course you're making kids depressed when you teach them to view the world like this.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

[Anonymous]

I think my kids are happy overall but I worry about them a lot. How do young adults even launch into the world these days. When I graduated HS i got a newish car of 9k and an apt for $400 a month. Doable on a income of $11 and hour. Folks still make $11 an hour but rent has skyrocketed and cars are insanely expensive. My former apartment is now 130. Not to mention groceries and everything else. I can see why life seems hard and depressing.

Sure prior generations were drafted for war but you likely had a 4 bedroom house with a yard waiting for you and a job with a good salary waiting for you in the other side.

Not to mention a lack of community, a lack of strong generational family bonds all while being bombarded with social medical images that make it seem like the American dream is still easily obtainable.

I can see why folks struggle with happiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is the Internet, modern news, and lack of community/social interaction. In practical terms, we have it better than anyone in history. All our worries are really much more on the theoretical level. Sometime Trump does makes it feel worse because we have mentally already assumed total destruction of our country. A natural disaster feels worse because we assume climate change will destroy the planet and this is just a taste. People back then just dealt with whatever was in front of them, be it natural disaster, wars, financial disasters. They didn't have news media telling them that it was all part of a puzzle that will ultimately lead to the end of life as we know it.

This.

Blame the phones. It is all due to the phones and high speed internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think my kids are happy overall but I worry about them a lot. How do young adults even launch into the world these days. When I graduated HS i got a newish car of 9k and an apt for $400 a month. Doable on a income of $11 and hour. Folks still make $11 an hour but rent has skyrocketed and cars are insanely expensive. My former apartment is now 130. Not to mention groceries and everything else. I can see why life seems hard and depressing.

Sure prior generations were drafted for war but you likely had a 4 bedroom house with a yard waiting for you and a job with a good salary waiting for you in the other side.

Not to mention a lack of community, a lack of strong generational family bonds all while being bombarded with social medical images that make it seem like the American dream is still easily obtainable.

I can see why folks struggle with happiness.

Np, I moved into my first apartment in 1998. It was a 1-bedroom unit that also had a den, the size of a bedroom, for $592 a month, all utilities included except electric. My Nissan Sentra was $247 a month. All this was doable on my $ 10.75-per-hour salary. Fast forward to 2025, my son pays $1100 a month with a roommate in a two-bedroom apartment, and they pay all the utilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think my kids are happy overall but I worry about them a lot. How do young adults even launch into the world these days. When I graduated HS i got a newish car of 9k and an apt for $400 a month. Doable on a income of $11 and hour. Folks still make $11 an hour but rent has skyrocketed and cars are insanely expensive. My former apartment is now 130. Not to mention groceries and everything else. I can see why life seems hard and depressing.

Sure prior generations were drafted for war but you likely had a 4 bedroom house with a yard waiting for you and a job with a good salary waiting for you in the other side.

Not to mention a lack of community, a lack of strong generational family bonds all while being bombarded with social medical images that make it seem like the American dream is still easily obtainable.

I can see why folks struggle with happiness.

Np, I moved into my first apartment in 1998. It was a 1-bedroom unit that also had a den, the size of a bedroom, for $592 a month, all utilities included except electric. My Nissan Sentra was $247 a month. All this was doable on my $ 10.75-per-hour salary. Fast forward to 2025, my son pays $1100 a month with a roommate in a two-bedroom apartment, and they pay all the utilities.

My old college apartment when I graduated was $1200 for a 2/2 in 2013. It’s now $2600. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

The worst thing right now is climate change and how we have messed up the enviornment. That is the most important thing. Mass extinction of species, forest fires, oceans that are polluted and dying, air too polluted to breathe, water too contaminated to drink. Everything that is good is dying.

No. AI, dictators, inequity are not the reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing right now is climate change and how we have messed up the enviornment. That is the most important thing. Mass extinction of species, forest fires, oceans that are polluted and dying, air too polluted to breathe, water too contaminated to drink. Everything that is good is dying.

No. AI, dictators, inequity are not the reasons.

Literally nobody cares about your made up fairy tales.

We have real life problems to deal with. Must be nice that your life is so good that you can focus all your energy on this bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lack of community

This is what Marxists want: eliminate the family unit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing right now is climate change and how we have messed up the enviornment. That is the most important thing. Mass extinction of species, forest fires, oceans that are polluted and dying, air too polluted to breathe, water too contaminated to drink. Everything that is good is dying.

No. AI, dictators, inequity are not the reasons.

I guess during the Ice Age and Little Ice Age people were record unhappy too, right?

I mean it's not like earth has never had climate issues and mass extinction before...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing right now is climate change and how we have messed up the enviornment. That is the most important thing. Mass extinction of species, forest fires, oceans that are polluted and dying, air too polluted to breathe, water too contaminated to drink. Everything that is good is dying.

No. AI, dictators, inequity are not the reasons.

I guess during the Ice Age and Little Ice Age people were record unhappy too, right?

I mean it's not like earth has never had climate issues and mass extinction before...

DP. Probably they were quite unhappy, we just don't have polling data from the 16th century to show how the changing climate changed people's happiness. We do know that the Little Ice Age coincides with the rise of witch hunts, and some historians think there's a connection. The Earth has had climate issue before, definitely, and it seems likely that those climate issues caused people to be unhappy.