The Entire Reason Why People are Unhappy
Look around you. No one seems happy anymore. In fact, almost 16 million people were depressed in 2014. Why does this happen, you ask. It seems... crazy.
Tl;dr: We are Unhappy because of Animals or Gravity.
There is one simple formula: Happiness = Reality - Expectations.
Think about it. If you expect to make $100,000 this year but make a million, you will be extremely happy. If you expect to make $100,000 but make only $25,000, you won't be satisfied with your life.
In other words, Happiness = Progress - Goals. It seems like people expect us (and we expect ourselves) to do great things when we don't really do them. How many of you did what you actually wanted to do, not just work, school, or something else? Probably only a tiny fraction of you. You made little progress, but you expect to do great things someday. (Note to everyone: this means that everyone is a procrastinator.) And we've just scratched the surface.
Now the question is: why is Progress tiny but Goals huge?
Progress:
We've just discussed this. Progress is low because people love procrastinating.
Goals:
Why are people so freaking ambitious?
One Answer: Social Media.
Your parents grew up without people from around the world telling them how great they are. They were competitive, of course, in their own communities. They were competitive because they knew what their friends did, though social media has taken this to a new level.
People check their phones 70 to 80 times a day and use their phones for 145 minutes a day. Assuming half the minutes are for social media, that's more than an hour of scrolling through Facebook or Snapchat or something. On social media, no one posts anything that's bad for themselves. (i.e. I just failed a test! Guess who didn't get into (insert college here)! You'll never see that.) They only post things that make themselves look good. You've probably done this too.
People love bragging on these social media websites because no one can prove them wrong. You'll see them exaggerate and tell half-truths and sometimes outright lies. This will cause jealousy and cause others to attempt to do the same. You are too ambitious because it looks like this on social media:
(The Yellow Bar is your progress, and the orange are other people's progress.)
Actually, the Yellow and Orange bars are the same height, maybe slightly lower or higher. Social Media is one of the reasons why people are unhappy.
Now, we have to find the reason for Procrastination and Social Media.
Social Media was meant for communication. Just blame the people who invented it. But Wait! Why do people use social media? (They don't communicate privately very often on Facebook or Instagram. They use Email.) There are a variety of reasons, but mostly procrastination (again!). If you wanted to waste some time, you could just open an app and scroll through other people's feed.
Now, why do people procrastinate?
Well, blame animals.
All animals want to do are easy, like eating and sleeping. We have evolved from animals, so we still have part of animal brains. We are not animals, so we have another part of a brain that tells us what's right to do. When our human part of the brain tells us to do something productive, our animals tell us to do something fun. (That's the analogy anyways).
Therefore, we are sad because we evolved from not-as-intelligent animals.
You could argue that were unhappy because of gravity.
Gravity causes Atoms to come closer together(that are hydrogen) which causes Fusion which causes The Earth which causes life which causes humans and that's why humans are sad.
Therefore, the only reason we are sad is because that we have Gravity or because we have a Animal Part of our Brain.
And now you know why the people around you are unhappy.
Tl;dr: We are Unhappy because of Animals or Gravity.
There is one simple formula: Happiness = Reality - Expectations.
Think about it. If you expect to make $100,000 this year but make a million, you will be extremely happy. If you expect to make $100,000 but make only $25,000, you won't be satisfied with your life.
In other words, Happiness = Progress - Goals. It seems like people expect us (and we expect ourselves) to do great things when we don't really do them. How many of you did what you actually wanted to do, not just work, school, or something else? Probably only a tiny fraction of you. You made little progress, but you expect to do great things someday. (Note to everyone: this means that everyone is a procrastinator.) And we've just scratched the surface.
Now the question is: why is Progress tiny but Goals huge?
Progress:
We've just discussed this. Progress is low because people love procrastinating.
Goals:
Why are people so freaking ambitious?
One Answer: Social Media.
Your parents grew up without people from around the world telling them how great they are. They were competitive, of course, in their own communities. They were competitive because they knew what their friends did, though social media has taken this to a new level.
People check their phones 70 to 80 times a day and use their phones for 145 minutes a day. Assuming half the minutes are for social media, that's more than an hour of scrolling through Facebook or Snapchat or something. On social media, no one posts anything that's bad for themselves. (i.e. I just failed a test! Guess who didn't get into (insert college here)! You'll never see that.) They only post things that make themselves look good. You've probably done this too.
People love bragging on these social media websites because no one can prove them wrong. You'll see them exaggerate and tell half-truths and sometimes outright lies. This will cause jealousy and cause others to attempt to do the same. You are too ambitious because it looks like this on social media:
(The Yellow Bar is your progress, and the orange are other people's progress.)
Actually, the Yellow and Orange bars are the same height, maybe slightly lower or higher. Social Media is one of the reasons why people are unhappy.
Now, we have to find the reason for Procrastination and Social Media.
Social Media was meant for communication. Just blame the people who invented it. But Wait! Why do people use social media? (They don't communicate privately very often on Facebook or Instagram. They use Email.) There are a variety of reasons, but mostly procrastination (again!). If you wanted to waste some time, you could just open an app and scroll through other people's feed.
Now, why do people procrastinate?
Well, blame animals.
All animals want to do are easy, like eating and sleeping. We have evolved from animals, so we still have part of animal brains. We are not animals, so we have another part of a brain that tells us what's right to do. When our human part of the brain tells us to do something productive, our animals tell us to do something fun. (That's the analogy anyways).
Therefore, we are sad because we evolved from not-as-intelligent animals.
You could argue that were unhappy because of gravity.
Gravity causes Atoms to come closer together(that are hydrogen) which causes Fusion which causes The Earth which causes life which causes humans and that's why humans are sad.
Therefore, the only reason we are sad is because that we have Gravity or because we have a Animal Part of our Brain.
And now you know why the people around you are unhappy.
Comments
Post a Comment