In general, yes.
From my anecdotal perspective, it seems to me like lots of people around me stopped prioritizing their own interests and needs in their late 20s.
I did not.
I enjoy the life I’ve built.
They, apparently, do not.
YMMV
Happiness is an U curve according to some research.
As death approaches, happiness increases.
That was 13 years ago, I’m also curious how much that relates to world events vs age
Until the current generation, happiness was generally a u-shaped curve, with happiness going down around their early 20’s and coming back up around the 60’s.
Gen Alpha doesn’t seem to have a happy childhood.
Gen Alpha doesn’t seem to have a happy childhood.
In some regions, yes. But not everywhere. They mostly seem happy to me
For parts of the world with data going back to boomers and earlier, there is a quantitative slide.
I did not have a very happy childhood but it improved in high school and college. Late college and working world sucked but got a job in a nice place and it went up but it paid low so had this anxiety about the long term. then it became a slog and now everything has collapsed. So for me personally. Kinda? There was this idea of work hard and sacrifice to get ahead but it did not really pan out and I kinda wonder if taking drugs and living for the day might have been the better way to go.
This study https://www.spring.org.uk/2024/12/age-most-depressed.php shows people getting more miserable towards middle age, then getting happier. The happiness graph makes a smile shape of course.
I wonder how the happiness in old age is seperated by wealth. like those on public assitance in homes compared to those with enough wealth to stay in their homes till death.
I don’t know about others, but as I grow older and realise I have progressively less time left, I grow less patient of other people’s bullshit. Some people may consider it a symptom of diminished happiness, but it’s more a degradation of my social filters.
Under late-stage capitalism, yes.
Idk, am 43 and more happy with each year that goes by
🌻
I am not. My life is progressively happier since my early 20s and really starting getting better at 35+ when I started focusing on myself and excluding more friends/partners who were dragging me down.
But everyone around me is getting more miserable, old or young. And I hate it and I hate them for it.
Increasingly I just detest socialization, because all it is is me listening to other people complain, and them telling I’m a jerk for being happy when the aren’t. All weekend I had to listen to people whine about their bodies, whine about their kids/spouses, and then brag about how rich they are and then lecture me how ignorant and stupid I am for not being as rich as they are.
Jeez man, sounds like more pruning of people is needed.
I feel you. I have felt myself become more capable as I age. I used to fantasize over having a redo of my youth and young adult years but I’m happy with who I am and what I have become. We aren’t rich, but we love each other and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
the older you get, the more health problems you have, and let me tell you, health problems can make you involuntarily unhappy.
The older i got, the happier i became. Despite physical aches and decline. Mentally, i’m much stronger now. And i don’t care should people not really like me, or have whatever opinions about me. Also, being kind to others makes you happier.
Very much no, it’s easier to be happy when you’re older if you do the work to be happy in general. Being happy and naive to your surroundings isn’t the same as being aware of your situation and confident in yourself.
I mean I didn’t start feeling any form of happiness starting from probably my teen years till I started going to therapy last year (I’m 30). Even now it’s mostly fleeting and half the time I feel like I’m just masking when I’m around others.
Here you go, OP (full-access preprint here). There’s no need to get anecdotal about this; it’s a very well-studied question in psychology, sociology, and economics. The U-shape has extensive evidence supporting it. If “have you gotten progressively less happy as you age?” were the prompt here, I wouldn’t be doing this, but you asked a general question that can be and has been answered empirically over and over.
From Tech’s Link…
You missed a call
Hell yeah
So, it can get better, but rarely if ever does it compare to the blithe joys of youth.
I do wonder if this upturn is related to cognitive decline, and therefore ties into the old “ignorance is bliss” adage, then.
Hell, maybe that has something to do with old folks enjoying reruns: it reminds them of their life, then and now. 🤔😅
They’ve also often got lower stress levels, higher wealth and/or more time than people in their thirties to fifties do. I’d be really interested if they’re also happier than their middle aged counterparts in countries where the elderly are disconnected from their communities and not financially supported.
Edit: it’s true around the world, but I’m not sure if it’s true in every country or just generally yet
And, when younger, expenses were less likely to be their responsibility, ergo “more wealth”, et al, in youth as well. 🤓
The question is, if this is correlation or causation. Maybe some people just do less things, that make them happy as they age? Doesn’t mean that you are gonna be unhappy.
Also, this is an average and I imagine, that there is a very high variance among different people. A lot of people may very well get progressively, happier as they age.
I would say, that happiness comes very much down to how you live your life, how you view the world and what you do.
If you have a job, that makes you happy and good relationships and stuff like that, you are probably gonna be happy regardless of your age.
I’ve become progressively more apathetic as I’ve aged. The highs aren’t as high, but the lows aren’t as low either.
