A former student at my school ended her life by suicide last week. I didn性视界传媒檛 know her, but some of the kids I teach did. A counselor met me at my door to tell me, and tears came to her eyes. The young woman was known to be at risk, and apparently she recently visited friends in a sort of goodbye tour.
My seniors went to the library to process their feelings. I felt sadness, but the day had to go on for my juniors, so I did what needed to be done.
Appropriately enough, a new report, the , has been a lot recently. We could use a lot more flourishing, and a lot fewer deaths of despair.
Happiness and flourishing are similar but are not the same. Happiness tends to be more transitory and is focused on a person性视界传媒檚 experiencing pleasant feelings and avoiding pain. In the language of the social scientists, it is known as hedonic well-being.
Flourishing involves functioning and living well. It tends to manifest over longer time periods, and it encompasses many areas of life, including personal growth, relationship, a sense of purpose, and virtues. It is sometimes known as eudaemonic well-being.
I have often made the point that the 性视界传媒減ursuit of happiness性视界传媒 mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is an example of what we nowadays call flourishing.
Researchers use various questionnaires to ascertain flourishing. The one used by the at Harvard性视界传媒檚 Institute for Quantitative Sciences surveys six domains: happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close personal relationships. It included 22 countries and 200,000 respondents over five years.
It性视界传媒檚 not just one study 性视界传媒 have addressed the issue of human flourishing, including cross-cultural studies. Broadly speaking, their results are congruent. It has long been understood that for most people, there us a U-shaped curve of flourishing over their lifetimes. Younger people and older people have experienced higher levels of flourishing.
That is no longer true.
Big changes are underway, with young people性视界传媒檚 responses to surveys indicating that they are not flourishing. The kids are not all right. This fall-off is most prominent in the U. S., but it can be seen in other cultures as well. It is the prosperous and wealthy countries where people are less likely to say that their .
Childhood and adolescence are not as happy or flourishing as they were in previous generations. This is not nostalgia, but is well documented, with rates of self-harm, depression, and other mental health issues on the rise.
It is likely that there are multiple causes, including global urbanization, the decline of extended family, technology, and in some societies, a reduced role for religion and communal life, and the fall in the birth rate across much of the globe.
People can endure all sorts of bad conditions if they have a sense of purpose. They need to have real community, not social media followers. They need human connection and real friends. A quarter-century ago, Robert Putnam documented the decline of community in his important book 性视界传媒淏owling Alone.性视界传媒 Nowadays, the problem is not that people are bowling alone, they性视界传媒檙e not even bowling, because they性视界传媒檙e stuck to their screens.
If you understand personal and interpersonal needs, you can take steps to increase your flourishing. I have. But for some people, 性视界传媒渕ake more friends性视界传媒 and 性视界传媒渄evelop a sense of purpose,性视界传媒 性视界传媒渏oin a civic organization性视界传媒 or 性视界传媒渇ind yourself a church性视界传媒 seem unreachable.
After all, addictions can be overcome simply by quitting the addictive activity, but telling that to an addict, by itself, is unlikely to lead to flourishing.
Short-term pleasure leads us astray. That性视界传媒檚 why philosophers and religious leaders have for centuries, indeed for millennia, preached a pro-social ethics of self-discipline and community. But to the emotionally immature, the distraction of shiny glowing interactive objects is irresistible.
We can性视界传媒檛 flourish on our own. As one scholar who directs this research has said, 性视界传媒 on the welfare of every other human. We don性视界传媒檛 just get to be happy and put a fence around ourselves.性视界传媒
Neither is the therapeutic model, that experts can diagnose and cure our longing for belonging and connection, likely to succeed. We are all flawed people, but we can cultivate genuine kindness and connection.
On a beautiful weekend in May, the family and friends of a very pretty young woman are grieving. We older folks are, as a group, doing fairly well at flourishing. We would do even better if we figure out how to help the young find their best paths in the pursuit of happiness.
