Prosperity breeds contempt? Young, successful, informed — and depressed As a native of the great American south, an old-time country doctor (at heart, anyway), and a soul who’s been around long enough to have known another way to live life, I’m a big proponent of slowing down, getting back to basics, and rediscovering the natural world — instead of the pre-packaged, store-bought one we’ve manufactured for ourselves. After all, I’ve been around the block enough times to know that the frenetic, mile-a-minute techno-glitz, instant gratification modern life serves to distract us from the truly meaningful things… One way or another (some direct, some not so much), this is the underlying theme of just about everything I write — the lunacy, excess, and mixed-up sensibilities of the modern world. It just isn’t good for us, on too many levels than can be counted. And apparently, I’ve been right about it all along. According to some research from perhaps the most unlikely source I’ve ever cited — the MTV Networks International (the music video pioneers) — this ultra-paced style of life is taking its toll on our world’s youth. A recent survey conducted by the hipster network among younger residents of 14 nations worldwide indicates that young people in the most developed countries of the world are around HALF as likely to be happy as those in poorer and developing nations. Consider: - Less than 30% of 16-34 year olds in the U.S. and Britain reported satisfaction with their lives
- Only 8% within the same age group in ultra-modern, plugged-in Japan said they were happy
- 75% of youth in sparsely developed Argentina and South Africa reported feeling happy with their lives
- 84% of this demographic in relatively poor (but up-and-coming) China expected to lead happy lives
The findings were based on responses from 3 basic categories: How young folks felt about their safety (from crime, terrorism, etc.), their place in society, and their prospects for the future. Not surprisingly, young people worldwide with more access to mass media were inclined to feel far less safe that their more sheltered counterparts in poorer or less developed nations. There may be a very simple reason for this. They say money changes everything. And apparently, they’re right. A recent series of 9 experiments conducted by scientists at the University of Minnesota has starkly illustrated this old axiom. According to this battery of tests, subjects exposed to an indirect suggestion of profit or enrichment were likely to labor on a puzzle or brain teaser without asking for assistance 65% longer than a similar test group that wasn’t “shown the money.” Two other bodies of recent research, one conducted by Florida State University and another at the University of British Columbia, revealed nearly identical findings… What does all this mean? It means that the richer or more motivated by money we get, the more closed off we get from each other and the more selfishly we act, the researchers theorize. Their rationale is a sound one, I think. Money allows us (especially young people) to avoid a lot of activities that might bring us together with friends — things like “painting parties” at a new house, communal “moving days” when buddies get together to move a friend into a new apartment, or even carpooling or pitching in for a pay-per-view TV event at friend’s house instead of watching it alone. Consider too, that the strongest communities are often those that are gelled by communal needs. Look at the Amish — the way they pull together to build barns, tend to their elders, or manage the harvest. They’re about the farthest thing from opulent, and very few of them ever stray from their families and neighbors. And I’ll bet they’re happier by far, on average, than most other Americans of any income bracket… I’m not saying you should give up all your worldly possessions and start living like a starving college kid once again — just that you should remember how much fun that could be when you all got together for some common good and made an afternoon or a night out of it. Or better yet, maybe you should call some of those old buddies up and pretend to be cash-strapped for a night — and once again see what fun a too-small TV with rabbit ears, a case of cheap beer, and a deck of cards can be… | 
