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Medicine United States

Americans Are the Unhappiest They've Been In 50 Years (go.com) 222

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: It's been a rough year for the American psyche. Folks in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they've been in nearly 50 years. This bold -- yet unsurprising -- conclusion comes from the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they're very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018. That year, 23% said they'd often or sometimes felt isolated in recent weeks. Now, 50% say that. The survey, conducted in late May, draws on nearly a half-century of research from the General Social Survey, which has collected data on American attitudes and behaviors at least every other year since 1972. No less than 29% of Americans have ever called themselves very happy in that survey. The poll has revealed some other interesting findings. It says that the public is less optimistic today about the standard of living improving for the next generation than it has been in the past 25 years.

Americans are also less likely to report some types of emotional and psychological stress reactions following the COVID-19 outbreak, and about twice as many Americans report being lonely today as in 2018.

You can read the full study here (PDF).
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Americans Are the Unhappiest They've Been In 50 Years

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  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @08:10AM (#60192368) Journal
    eom
  • Happiness (Score:5, Insightful)

    by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @08:12AM (#60192376)

    I was unhappy until covid hit. But then I got to work from home, and got to avoid anyone who wasn't my wife or kids. Suddenly, my happiness meter got pegged at maximum. It was a paradise (we have bidets, so the toilet paper hoarding hardly affected us), and stayed that way until we all stupidly got recalled back to the office.

    Then my happiness not only fell back down to pre-covid levels, but went even lower. This is because I know what a working life can be, and know that my boss doesn't give a rats ass about any of us (despite many years of them falsely claiming that people are the greatest resource. Before being recalled, I could at least pretend that they cared about their employees. But that illusion has been shattered.

    There is no such thing as family-friendly workplace. The two things are diametrically opposed.

    So yeah, I can completely understand why people are the unhappiest they've been in fifty years.

    • Find a different job where they'll let you work from home. Maybe it pays less or isn't as rewarding in terms of what you make, but how much is your happiness worth to you?
      • Re:Happiness (Score:5, Insightful)

        by deKernel ( 65640 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @08:45AM (#60192504)

        This x 10000000. People need to take control of all aspects of their lives. If there is something you don't like, change it. It is not for others to change so you are happy, it is for you to change yourself or your circumstances to be happy. If there is a good reason(and by good, I mean truly extraordinary) you can't change the situation, just accept and move on and for the love of Pete, don't wallow in your misery.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Easier said than done with the COVID recession now hitting us, record unemployment and so many others looking for new jobs too.

          • by deKernel ( 65640 )

            But in alvinrod's case, he was unhappy long before COVID hit. Now for others sure, but again, how many were unhappy before COVID. See where I am going with this....most people will just use the COVID situation as an excuse as to why they are unhappy and just can't change because well, change is hard.

          • Yep, it's not always easy. Not everything worth doing is easy.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @09:36AM (#60192740)
        but how's he gonna do that in the biggest economic depression in American history? And that's not accounting for the statistical likelihood that he's living paycheck to paycheck (though to be fair /. seems to be more affluent than the rest of the country)?

        Sorry, but I'm so sick and tired of hearing "Get a better Job!" every time anyone complains about working conditions. It's like that joke about Mitt Romney and "Why can't the poor just buy more money?".

        Sheez, and people wonder why everybody is so unhappy? It's because instead of addressing problems we pretend they don't exist or are easily solvable if only we'd just pull ourselves up by bootstraps or something. Am I the only only who realizes that you can't actually do that?
        • "It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."

          Martin Luther King Jr.

        • by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @11:45AM (#60193456)

          Sorry, but I'm so sick and tired of hearing "Get a better Job!" every time anyone complains about working conditions.

          Me, too. I'm not going to quit what is otherwise a good job just because there is one aspect of it that sucks. My job is pretty binary in nature: it either sucks or is awesome. Flip just one bit, the right bit, and I have a dream job. It just has this one shitty aspect that I have to leave my family every day to do a job I could just as easily do from home.

          In fact, my productivity went way up while working from home, and my immediate boss noticed it. It's our mutual boss that, for some reason, disregards that. Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, he still believes that a distracted office seat warmer with reduced productivity is somehow better than a focused performer working from home.

          At one point, I did quit to take a "better" job. The job paid a lot more, but it sucked in just about every other way imaginable. I quit and went back to my old job. And that was years ago when the economy was working in my favor.

          It seems that most people on Slashdot that advocate quitting for a better job are living in a kind of la-la land. I suspect they're young with no family obligations, and rent rather than own. There's nothing wrong with that, but they need to stop offering bad advice in situations they don't understand.

    • "There is no such thing as family-friendly workplace. The two things are diametrically opposed."

      They are rare, but they exist. Not just talking in office childcare, although that's not a bad thing. But some people have jobs where they can take their child to work and care for them.

      I still think that working from home should be much more prevalent, though.

    • Similar story here. Though, in all honesty, I don't despise being at work as I enjoy the job. But working from home was so much easier, and cut out an hour and some change of unnecessary travel time every day.

      The most bothersome part to me is at home I could just get food whenever through the day and didn't have to plan my entire day's meals before I left for work. We used to have a permanently open cafeteria with several options available at all times of the day at work. But, they called us back and di

  • Of Course (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @08:17AM (#60192390)

    They (and most other people in the developed world) are surrounded by shit like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter which constantly pump out a stream of dissatisfaction whether with the world in general or just with how far short of some impossible ideal the user is.

    We're working hard to cope with financial problems while the people who created them are pensioned off to live in luxury.

    Hard working people get sidelined and discarded while a moral vacuum becomes president after losing the vote.

    We're told our Democratic values are important while companies from Amazon and Apple, down to corner stores are filled with goods from Fascist China.

    We're told that we should be ashamed of things we didn't do to people we never met.

    We're told inflation is good as it drains away our pensions and savings.

    We're told that rising house prices generate wealth while a generation contemplate a life of renting.

    We're told that people need to be armed to be free while living in fear that the next mass shooting will be at our workplace or our kids' school.

    We're told that GDP must increase every year while the seas are rising in front of us.

    And you say people are unhappy? If you're not unhappy then you don't have a fucking clue what's going on.

    • +5

      People will have been exposed to an increased dose of all of that while they were locked up at home.

    • This is why you need to talk about the good things instead of the relentless drumbeat of the bad. Skipping the past few months for things beyond our control:

      1. Life continues to improve, both for longevity and average wealth. Products are cheaper and better than ever, and more inventions to buy.

      2. Our greatest health problem at the moment (including covid) is obesity and heart disease from too much cheap food and sedentary lifestyle where many don't have to physically labor all day.

      Do you realize what a w

      • 2. Our greatest health problem at the moment (including covid) is obesity and heart disease from too much cheap food and sedentary lifestyle where many don't have to physically labor all day.

        Do you realize what a wonderful, novel problem that is historically?

        If you define it more generally as obesity caused by poor nutrition than it's a lot less novel historically. I doubt we're the only historical era with a population segment trying to sustain itself on cheap carbohydrates. The reasons vary, in the past the ruling classes hoarded fats and animal protein source and/or they were limited by In the present, the reasons are more complicated (bad science leading to poor preferences, marketing/advertising generating poor preferences, actual cost of higher quality

    • You know what's really great about YAML? No, I don't either.

      You would probably be happier if you damped your tendency to focus on meaningless questions that nobody is asking.

    • by Kohath ( 38547 )

      We're working hard to cope with financial problems while the people who created them are pensioned off to live in luxury.

      Envy leads to unhappiness. Others' "luxury" objectively has nothing to do with you. You caused your own unhappiness caring about it.

      ... a moral vacuum becomes president...

      Judging people leads to unhappiness. Someone you never met allegedly has a moral failing. That has nothing to do with you. You caused your own unhappiness.

      We're told our Democratic values are important while companies from Amazon and Apple, down to corner stores are filled with goods from Fascist China.

      You choose to have anxiety about news about distant lands. You caused your own unhappiness.

      We're told that we should be ashamed of things we didn't do to people we never met.

      Don't listen and tell those people their bullshit is unwelcome. This one you didn't cause.

      We're told that people need to be armed to be free while living in fear that the next mass shooting will be at our workplace or our kids' school.

      Stop believing in the bogeyman. Or if

  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @08:29AM (#60192428)

    Social media and twitter specifically.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Does twitter make people sad and angry, or does twitter merely give voice to the sad and angry?
      • Does twitter make people sad and angry, or does twitter merely give voice to the sad and angry?

        Both!

      • It mainly gives voice to the attention whores, who need millions of views to validate their own existence, who know that by posting the most-inflammatory speech that is with the trend-du-jour, they'll get the anonymous eyeballs they crave.
    • That doesn't make sense to me to blame those.

      Those services are 100% voluntary to use.

      If they are making someone unhappy then they should not be using them.

      I put the blame on the individual for continuing to engage in platforms and activities that make them unhappy.

      I've never used twitter, facebook, etc and am perfectly happy. Seems like I am doing something right.

  • This generation (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kryliss ( 72493 )

    The big problem is that you have a whole generation of people that live to be upset and offended by everything because it scores "woke points" on the internet.

    • The "big problem" is that an entire generation is trying to score "woke points" on the Internet?

      Man, you are some really woke guru!

    • Re:This generation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @10:04AM (#60192876)

      The big problem is that you have a whole generation of people that live to be upset and offended by everything because it scores "woke points" on the internet.

      While the verbiage of "being woke" may be new and the topics you should be "woke" about have shifted and the Internet is a new method by which to signal your "wokeness", the idea of virtue signaling is neither new nor unique to any particular generation. Or have you forgotten about past countercultural movements or subcultures? The Beat generation signaled their antimaterialistic ethos by wearing black, hippies adopted their characteristic clothing and hair styles to signal that they were hip, and the same sort of signaling was done or is being done by hipsters, flappers, and countless other subcultures.

      Also worth noting is that you're labeling a vocal minority as "a whole generation", without regard for the fact that the vocal minority you're speaking of is neither specific to a single generation nor do they count anywhere close to enough members to even comprise a single generation. I get that it feels like the kids are walking all over your lawn, but it isn't just kids and it isn't every kid in the neighborhood doing it.

      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        ... the idea of virtue signaling is neither new nor unique to any particular generation. Or have you forgotten about past countercultural movements or subcultures? The Beat generation signaled their antimaterialistic ethos by wearing black, hippies adopted their characteristic clothing and hair styles to signal that they were hip, and the same sort of signaling was done or is being done by hipsters, flappers, and countless other subcultures.

        Vanity causes unhappiness.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by fatwilbur ( 1098563 )
        No, we're hearing from a new "type" of people we haven't before. Adhering to a political/counterculture/whatever ideology and signalling that through what you wear or do has been around forever and doesn't matter to me: those people actually believe in it so all the power to them. What we see on the internet today are those who really don't believe in any of the stuff, they are just feeding their personal ego and are incredibly self-absorbed. True integrity must be done in private; pretty much every singl
        • [The people adhering] to a political/counterculture/whatever ideology and signalling that through what [they] wear [...] actually believe in it so all the power to them

          Again with generalizations. Not everyone who dresses a certain way believes what that garb would suggest.

          While there are certainly true believers in any of these subcultures, go ask people who are a few decades removed from a subculture why they joined it and you'll find that a huge number of them will be willing to admit that they were only a part of these subcultures because they wanted to feel like they belonged (or variants thereof, such as it being the thing they were "supposed" to do, it being what al

    • Yeah must be "wokeness". Not massive job losses, economic uncertainty, social isolation, the shutdown of hobbies and activities people enjoy, the inability to holiday and travel freely, the endless protests in the cities, the affect a pandemic has had on loved ones.

      Must be "wokeness" and some "shitty generation" that is too weak which has upset everyone.

      (*You're an idiot*)

  • Pass the Prozac sprinkles for my ice cream.
  • Clearly we're also the dumbest we've been in 50 years.
  • This isn't news for nerds. This isn't news of any kind. It is so blatantly obvious to anyone who is paying attention that the study doesn't even matter. And such a bold conclusion (/s). With the pandemic compounded by the protests and riots, which themselves were exacerbated by the tension and isolation caused by the pandemic, did anyone seriously expect otherwise? FTFS "That year, 23% said they'd often or sometimes felt isolated in recent weeks. Now, 50% say that." OMGOMGOMG more people feel isolated, well
  • by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @09:33AM (#60192716)

    For all the massive technology improvements over the last 50 years, there's a massive amount of stress we just didn't have pre-technology:
    - One of the issues that's getting more exposure with the WFH thing is that more employers are expecting to be able to contact employees at any time and get a response. "We give you a phone/Teams/Slack, we expect to be able to contact you." Outside of doctors, very few people had this kind of tethering to work that they have now -- when work was over that was it. It's the only good thing (IMO) of going to an office to work...if you're done when you leave.
    - At the same time, employment relationships aren't as stable as they were. It'd be one thing if the tethering meant you get to keep your job for your entire career...but now people are being pushed into "gig economy" work and encouraged to become contractors wherever possible. I'm not sure if I'd like the weird paternal relationship people had with IBM, GE, AT&T, etc. back in the day but I sure feel like my job isn't as safe as it would have been back then. "Millenials love the freedom of gig work" say employers -- wait until they have families and kids and responsibilities other than their rent.
    - Financial security is another big one. I'm doing all right but I know there are tons more people who aren't. Never having to worry about money again would be a major stress relief for just about anyone. We had some of that 50 years ago before offshoring and rightsizing...there was enough slack in the system and workers were paid more. Now employers know everyone's desperate and no employer is willing to take a chance by offering a better work environment because their competitors won't.
    - There's also less community. People are distrustful of others and don't socialize as much as they did. Religion used to provide some of this community and still does, but that's way down and frankly most people don't want to go to church. I think if people had more free time and less pressure to be busy 24/7, they might form groups around shared interests. Sign me up for a bowling league or a gardening club or -something- that doesn't involve being tied to work.
    - This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but social media sucks for personal happiness. You see your "friends" all trying to outdo each other showing off their #bestlife and I can see some people assuming that if your life doesn't match what you're seeing, something's wrong.
    - At least in the IT world lately (see, news for nerds!!) there's a corollary of this that has to do with competing to see who's the most hardcore. Ever since DevOps and Agile and the Second Tech Bubble kicked in, the pace of change kicked into warp speed and the FAANGs and startups hired a bunch of new grads who don't know that it's not normal to work 90 hour weeks even if you're being given free food and Nerf guns. The folks working here are blogging/tweeting/Mediuming/conference speaking and promoting (IMO) an unhealthy pace of work. I love the idea of DevOps and Agile, except for the slapping together of stuff at a crazy pace. Hopefully the recession will at least calm the frantic "we have to launch first/we have to be bought by Microsoft/we have to IPO" that seems to be taking over modern tech culture.

    We got many many benefits from our increased use of technology, but I feel they've come with a high social price. People are nomadic chasing employment all over, they don't have time to socialize because work keeps them too busy, and they aren't financially secure.

  • I'm all good!! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GregMmm ( 5115215 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @10:21AM (#60192950)

    Funny, if you listen to "the news" or watch "social media" you tend to think the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

    I stay in my own community and talk and socialize with them. I stay in a normal positive state of mind.

    If I watch the news, I get caught up in the mess of people I don't even know, and will never meet. What I've learned is to look at our own communities where we live and make improvements there. Social media is very bad for having good dialog. Intent over text/pictures can lose their real intent, or people tend to be much more brazen when not talking to an actual person.

    Not trying to ignore what has happened, I'm trying to focus on how to go forward in the sphere I can influence and learn from.

  • by Crass Spektakel ( 4597 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @10:22AM (#60192952) Homepage

    In other studies germans happen to be the happiest people atm.

    After most of COVID-19 has passed with low loss of lifes and after kickstarting the economy with 200 billions safed in better times the economy is recovering fast, the unemployment numbers have barelly risen.

    Thats what you get for electing a scientist for quantum chemistry into power.
    Born as the daughter of a pastor behind the iron curtain.
    The widely accepted leader of the free world.
    Creator of the largest free trade and travel agreements in history with three billion citizens.
    Beware!

    On the other hand the US loses allies faster than Hilter after Stalingrad. Just recently the US-ITAR law basically made american technology unsalable everywhere. EU goverments are dropping US products, architecture and software at an alarming rate due to highly eratic US decision making.. In 2024 Microsoft will be a goner in every EU country, state, city. Seriously, when Mexiko and Canada are relying more on the EU than the USA then someone has seriously fucked up. When canadians can do business easier with japan through CETA and JEFTA than with the US then something is rotten in the state of the US.

    The american age has come to an end. The run was spectaluar. The end wasn't.

  • Orange man *is* bad.
  • Just about everyone has realized by now that if you take a customer satisfaction survey and answer "satisfied" or even worse "happy" you end up getting flagged for lower quality customer service by some limp-dicked executive who wants to cut costs.
    When it comes to satisfaction surveys the default rule has become "if you don't have anything bad to say don't say anything at all" purely as a means of self-preservation of what bits of happiness you do have.
  • The 40 years wealth inequality has has been accelerating in the last few years. It will only get worst. For 5 years I have been predicting social unrest this year. The trigger was George Floyd's murder. Trump chaos management style has destabilized America and the world.
  • by TomGreenhaw ( 929233 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @01:18PM (#60193874)
    Good outcomes are determined by what is measured.

    Somehow people have been sold a pack of lies that the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 is the preferred measure of the economy. Nearly every TV newscast broadcasts these figures daily. After 2008 with quantitative easing and Wall Street bail outs, the stock market no longer fluctuated with the Gross Domestic Product and thus the "Jobless Recovery" was born. Another smoke and mirror figure is unemployment where bizarre rules make negative unemployment possible.

    People need to wake up to the fact that cost of living, standard of living, average healthy lifespan and other quality of life measurements are what we should be using to govern our economic policy.

    Until we get big money out of politics and demand that the media report the measurements that matter, our government will help people who don't need it and shit on the people at the bottom.

    ++StockMarket != Happiness

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