For me it’s always gone in phases. My happiest phase in life was raising kids. Now they’re in college so I need to figure out my next phase in life
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.
There are peaks and valleys. I’ve been happier, but I’ve been more miserable.
My heart says no but the micro plastic in my brain says yes.
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.
I would say it depends on your ability to live your life in a way that makes you happy. It’s a kind of nothing answer, but human experience largely boils down to ability to self determine internally and externally.
People born in the late 90s onward sure do, we get to see every expected milestone dissapear under a pile of enshitification and vanishing wages/opportunities as people who increasingly seem like disney villains do their best to make everything even worse.
I feel you. I’m a child of the early eighties and my adult experiences have made me jaded as hell with debilitating trust issues. I’ve just about given up on anything improving.
the older you get, the more health problems you have, and let me tell you, health problems can make you involuntarily unhappy.
Under late-stage capitalism, yes.
Im my case was the opposite; the farthest I get from my abusive and narcissists parents the happier I get…
I’m 55 and can honestly say I am more happy today then I have ever been in the past, not because of money or lots of friends but because I have learned a lot about myself in the last 10 years.
Happiness is an U curve according to some research.
As death approaches, happiness increases.
It’s true, suicidal people have a strange phenomenon where they seem happy for a short time, because they know they don’t have to worry about their lives anymore, just before they take them
That was 13 years ago, I’m also curious how much that relates to world events vs age
Nope, it’s personal and specific to how you lived your life.
No, there is a well-studied and objective answer to this general question. Even though people will vary, there’s a crystal-clear trend that’s been studied over and over again as a perennial question in psychology, sociology, and economics. We don’t have to base any of this on vibes, and arguably a question with a definitive answer like this doesn’t belong here.
A large empirical literature has debated the existence of a U-shaped happiness-age curve. This paper re-examines the relationship between various measures of well-being and age in 145 countries, including 109 developing countries, controlling for education and marital and labor force status, among others, on samples of individuals under the age of 70. The U-shape of the curve is forcefully confirmed, with an age minimum, or nadir, in midlife around age 50 in separate analyses for developing and advanced countries as well as for the continent of Africa. The happiness curve seems to be everywhere. While panel data are largely unavailable for this issue, and the findings using such data largely confirm the cross-section results, the paper discusses insights on why cohort effects do not drive the findings. I find the age of the minima has risen over time in Europe and the USA.
There is no empirical way to measure happiness, just because a paper says so doesn’t mean, that it’s objectively correct
Whoah, watch out. We got a scientific badass over here! Don’t follow too close, peasants, or you’ll trip over their trailing list of doctorates! 😱🫡
I’m in my 70’s. I feel I’ve been getting happier over time. Kids grow up and leave, Work becomes stable. Finances become more stable. When you retire, it’s like a whole new life (as long as you plan it correctly).
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.
