There is a disagreement about whether teenagers or adults are happier than the other. In this essay, I will discuss both sides and explain why I agree with those who think adults are happier than teenagers.
Those who believe teenagers are happier are likely to be adults who have already experienced the burdens of adulthood. These burdens accumulate with the stress they experience at work, financial pressures, and for certain individuals, the exhaustion of maintaining a family. Furthermore, as they have all once been teenagers, they can make comparisons between the happiness levels they experienced at different stages of life. While currently being an adult, they will tend to reminisce about their teenage life, where it seemed to be less stressful and they had more of a social life.
On the other hand, teenagers believe that adults are happier because they have not experienced it and look towards freedom with no restrictions. Teens experience a lot of peer pressure from school, high stress levels from studying, and, in some cases, high expectations from parents. It is the fact that they have not stepped into adulthood that makes them believe that their current situation is already the worst it can be, and believe that life would be easier without school. Furthermore, restrictions for adolescents exist both at home and in the world around them, such as drinking, tattooing, and driving. It is this lack of freedom that makes them further believe that adulthood is better, and thus, happier than their current situation
However, as a teenager myself, I have to agree that I think grown-ups are happier, even if it is not really because we constantly need to gaslight ourselves that life will be easier after school ends, so that we have a motive to get through these next years.