There are many factors affecting the “journey to find happiness” of modern people.
Happiness is a feeling of euphoria, satisfaction or satisfaction with life. Everyone defines happiness in their own way, but happiness is often described as an emotion associated with positivity.
Happiness can come from many factors, for example a person is born with a cheerful, optimistic personality, or is educated and raised in a favorable environment. These are factors beyond our control, but there is one that anyone can build and maintain, and that is relationships. Relationships are key to achieving lasting happiness. Even people with “negative genes” , often overthinking, or born into a toxic environment, can still be happy if they know how to move towards healthy social relationships.
The instinct for social connection is in our genes
There are many studies on the influence of relationships on feelings of happiness. One of the most influential and enduring studies is the Harvard study of 724 people, which began in 1938. For more than 74 years, scientists indexed people’s psychological well-being and health. participate in the experiment. The results show that people with healthy social connections are happier.
Humans are a social creature. In prehistoric times, our ancestors formed tribes, living together, feeding, protecting and caring for each other. When isolated from the tribe, an individual is likely to face death. From a sociological perspective, social connection is also a powerful survival skill.
The ” connection gene “ remains in the cells of modern humans and drives us to perform social behaviors. Unfortunately, at today’s fast pace, relationships are slowly losing their significance.
Happiness can come from many factors.
People today are connecting less and less
The advent of the Internet and social networks is making people seek more virtual values. Author Caroline Beaton once wrote in Psychology Today that many people are trying to replace real relationships with virtual relationships . We can connect online with hundreds of people we’ve never met, but that connection is often superficial, ultimately leading to dissatisfaction and distrust in our social relationships. While we forget virtual connection is different from real connection.
Second, the presence of technology also reduces the quality of the conversation . How many times have you gone on a coffee date with a group of friends but the date ended with everyone looking at their smartphones?
In addition, there is another reason that many people do not pay attention to, which is the “dependency shift”. The Internet gives us a huge resource, if we need to look up anything, we immediately ask “Sister Google” to answer. Gradually we develop a feeling of more independence and less need to seek help as before.
Steven Van Cohen is an author. He said that in the past, when he had a problem to solve, he could rely on someone with expertise. For example, if he couldn’t fix the faucet, he would ask his father or a mechanic to fix it. Now he is more independent, can look up on YouTube and “doesn’t need to depend on anyone else”. Modern technology has partly reduced interaction, making us more self-sufficient, but also making us more lonely.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be independent or always run to get help if you need it. Just don’t be afraid to ask for help from time to time , because that’s one of the ways we build relationships.
Our grandparents had very different joys than we do today, in part because they didn’t grow up in the age of the Internet.
Of course, technological progress is not the only cause of people feeling lonely, because feelings of emptiness and isolation can also come from the development of individualism, globalization , competition for jobs, peer pressure.
But whatever the reason, in an increasingly strict world, the younger generation will be the most vulnerable group, because they do not have many experiences and relationships. Young people should slow down a bit, practice, step out, improve existing relationships, and at the same time look for new (healthy) relationships. To find happiness, start with the people around you.
