Are We Trading Our Happiness for Modern Comforts?
Five takeaways:
- Here Brooks points out that while average household income risen over time, average happiness has fallen. Why?
- The General Social Survey has been measuring social trends among Americans since 1972, and shows a rise in unhappiness from 1988 to the present– despite many metrics showing an increase in quality of life.
- Brooks reminds us that although material comforts can provide a thrill or sense of security, they do not inject life with meaning.
- The rise of technology, similarly, promised a utopian vision of a happy and thrilling future; it has not delivered on that promise at all- in fact making us less happy and more socially isolated.
- Brooks offers three principles for warding off a life of empty consumption: 1. Don’t make frivolous, short-sighted purchases 2. Be skeptical of government or big tech companies whose sustenance involves taking your attention, winning your vote, and separating you from your money. 3. Don’t trade love for anything: love is the leading indicator of happiness known to man. It is never to be taken for granted and completely irreplaceable.
From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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