Although the financial status and longevity of young generations in some countries have been improved, their satisfaction decreases. This essay will first outline the underlying causes of this phenomenon before proposing some measures to increase their happiness.
The dissatisfaction among young people can be attributed to two main reasons. One of them is the increased pressure they are put under. Alongside academic and job opportunities that the advancement of technology provides, employees are facing a risk of being replaced by robots and AI chatbots, especially in laborious and repetitive tasks. With a view to building a solid position in the market, they need to continually reskill and acquire in-depth knowledge, which consumes their time and efforts. As a result, they often suffer from fear and fatigue, preventing them from enjoying their life. Moreover, constant exposure to images of lavish lifestyles or unrealistic beauty on the Internet deprives young people of satisfaction. They tend to draw a parallel between themselves and those people in the images, thereby feeling a sense of low self-esteem and demotivation. For example, many women are pursuing a harmful beauty standard of being extremely thin after seeing photos of some beauty vloggers having this figure. Despite the possibility of these photos being edited, they still blindly trust them and even feel insecure about their normal body shape. This can lead to unhappiness on a daily basis.
To promote satisfaction among young people, individual effort is wholly warranted. Firstly, each person should strike a balance between their self-development and relaxing time. While reskilling and upgrading themselves are indispensable in the contemporary competitive era, people should manage their time more effectively to both develop their emotional health and competency. For example, rather than captivating themselves in a loop of studying English incessantly through textbooks, they should try different methods, such as watching animated English films and listening to their favourite English songs, so as to relax their brain, as well as learning new vocabulary. This measure should be executed in tandem with a positive change in their perspective through which they view online images. Instead of feeling demotivated and insecure, they should consider them as a source of motivation to strive for higher living standards and better well-being, thus improving their satisfaction with daily life. This dual approach can go a long way towards increasing happiness among young generations.
In conclusion, the decrease in satisfaction is primarily due to the pressure of upgrading themselves and access to online posts of high-standard lifestyles or unrealistic body shapes. To reverse this trend, young individuals should balance their working and resting routines and regard those posts as a stimulus to perfect themselves.