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Why Are so Many Young People Unhappy?

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Why are young people so unhappy and so anxious about their future? Healthcare professionals and social scientists round up the usual suspects: drug addiction, social media, cyberbullying, fear of impending demise of the planet. See anything important missing from that list? Dennis Prager does.

This video was made possible by a generous grant from Colorado Christian University. CCU is offering PragerU subscribers a $1,000 scholarship for online courses through CCU Online. Learn more at PragerU.com/CCU

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Script:

Why are so many young people unhappy?

To cite just one example, Reuters reported in 2019 that “Suicidal thinking, severe depression and rates of self-injury among U.S. college students more than doubled over less than a decade.”

And unhappiness is hardly confined to Americans. As the social commentator Kay Hymowitz recently wrote, “Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians . . . are lonely. The British prime minister . . . recently appointed a ‘Minister of Loneliness.’”

People have more money, better health, better housing, more education, and live longer than at any time in history, but people—especially the young—are unhappier than at any time since data began to be collected.

Why?

There are any number of reasons: increased drug and opioid addiction, less human interaction because of constant cellphone use, and young people’s fears for their future are the most widely offered explanations. But the biggest reason is the loss of values and meaning.

Let’s begin with values, and I’ll focus on America.

The United States was founded on two sets of values: Judeo-Christian and American. This combination created the freest, most opportunity-giving, most affluent country in world history. This is not chauvinism. It is fact. That’s why people from every country on Earth have wanted to emigrate to America—and still do.

Chief among the American values was keeping government as small as possible. This enabled non-governmental institutions—Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Clubs; book clubs; the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; bowling leagues; music societies; and, of course, churches—to provide Americans with friends and to provide the neediest Americans with help. But as government has gotten ever larger, many of these non-governmental groups have dwindled in number or simply disappeared.

Another set of values is referred to as middle class or bourgeois values. These include getting married before having a child, making a family, getting a job, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and patriotism.

All of these have been under attack by America’s elites, with the following results: The majority of births to millennials are to unmarried women. Yet, according to a 2018 Cigna study, single parents are generally the loneliest of Americans. The percentage of American adults who have never been married and who have no children is at an historic high.

Then there is patriotism. Until the 1960s, Americans grew up loving their country, admiring the Founders, and believing in America’s values—most especially, liberty. Americans did not ignore the bad parts of their history, but they were wise enough to recognize that what made America exceptional was not its flaws, which were all universal, but its virtues, which were not. This strong American identity provided generations of Americans with roots, community, optimism, and meaning.

Which brings me to the most important reason for all this unhappiness: a lack of meaning. As Victor Frankl, the renowned Austrian-American psychoanalyst, wrote in his masterpiece, Man’s Search for Meaning, aside from food, the greatest human need is meaning. And nothing has given Americans―or any other people, for that matter―as much meaning as religion. But in the West since World War II, God and religion have been relegated to the dustbin of history. The result is that more than a third of Americans born after 1980 affiliate with no religion. This is unprecedented in American history. And it’s even worse in Europe.

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46 Comments

  5. The truth will set you free, hell no it will depress the hell out of you. TRUTH? We can't handle the truth. Religion is like Santa Klaus your happier when you believe some mysterious man you never really see will give you everything you want.

  10. The COVID-19 Mandates began during the same month that this video was posted. The rates of suicide, depression, and things of that sort went up a lot more. Not to mention that during the ordeal, Woke Culture and Ideology strongly sabotaged the United States by discouraging patriotism, the nuclear family structure, etc.

  13. Gen X is really the last generation to have real fun and meaning of life without smartphones and social media. They interacted face to face, played outside until the streetlights came on, left home and explored uncharted territory, the only video games were arcades and Atari.

  14. I would like to play the devil's advocate for a small part of the video. The church doesn't help much. When I tried to volunteer for several organizations, all I got was "no no no no no".
    Yes, you can come to church and sit, but nothing more. The rest of the video is quite true, but the church has a knack for making itself irrelevant

  22. People have so many problems you dont know where to begin.

    What i think?

    I think the main reason why people are so miserable is because they refuse to do self work.

    They refuse to clean up their emotional and physical GARBAGE that has accumulated over the years.

    Most people never try to become better than they are and i dont mean in the academic sense either.

    Im talking about the ROOT human values such as our spirit and physical and emotional strength.

    Schooling doesnt adress the core spiritual values of the human race because its long OBSOLETE.

  25. They are unhappy because of stupid right ideology that puts profit over people. Of course, they are not hardwired to be serious all the time like I am since I have Aspergers whereas I don't have the flexibility to be funny and I am serious all the time and I cannot switch on and off like they can.
    They are trying to make a difference to save the Earth for future generations like the Native People said something about seven generations. Many young people today like their parents worried about the environment and previously the Cold War.

  28. This video has a big contradiction. People are in good health but their unhappiness is caused by increased drug and opioid addiction. That's contradiction. If you consume drug and alcohol then you can't gave better health. Right ?? And bad health will not bring you more money, more opportunity.

    Also if you lose your value then then you are an immoral person. So that too contradicts earlier premises. An immoral man can't have better prospects like money, health , job etc.

    Please correct the contradiction.

  33. Im fortunat enough to be born where i was allowed to earn enough to live and have time off to spend with friends. From experiene of every young people around me, it's not being able to persue the happyness were always told about, young people are just experiencing a time where they have less opertunitys and finantial stability and freedom that we had. They simply cant afford to support a family. They find meaning with the people around them rather than religon, they work multiple jobs wile we didn't have too. Vey reminicent the the generations in the 1920s. their less patriotic because they have less, not the other way around.

  35. Whether you agree or disagree with me as long as you are tolerant. In my honest opinion I really do not like my generation at all because they are ungrateful for the amazing opportunities they have. I am very aware that every generation has ungrateful people in it but for some reason the millennial generation and the zoomer generation are even worse. As a mature young man myself born in 1998, I honestly do not understand why is it so hard for young people to live their lives normally. I am not criticizing all young people but some young people in this world who are a bunch of whiny spoiled brats. Why can’t some young people finish school, finish college, serve in the military, be a first responder, play sports to become an athlete, get a job, buy a house, get married before having a child, make a family, pay your house bills on time, and also have self-discipline. The younger generation needs to appreciate that we have advanced healthcare, advanced technology, better entertainment, better housing, cleaner water, healthier food, more education, more human civil rights, more careers, & more jobs to make our lives more easier. Also we need less politics, less religion, and obviously no violence plus more nurturing in this world. Life is obviously difficult but sadly that is the price you have to pay for being born alive into this wicked world. If you want to have a less troubled life here are four simple steps. Step one: graduate from high school, step two: do not have kids out of wedlock, step three: hold down a job, and step four: do not commit crimes. I send my love and support from all the way from Lakemba, New South Wales, Australia to anyone around the world who are struggling with depression. As human beings we should all follow the three principles of life compassion, empathy, and love to have a more perfect union.

  39. Suicide Reasons:
    -Abduction
    -Abortion
    -Alcoholism
    -Bankruptcy
    -Betrayal
    -Bigotry
    -Broken Families
    -Broken Friendships
    -Bullying
    -Cancer
    -Career Loss
    -Childhood Trauma
    -Climate Change
    -Disability
    -Divorce
    -Drug Addiction
    -Eviction
    -Exam Failures
    -False Accusations
    -Family Loss
    -Fear of future
    -Finding out your adopted
    -Friend Loss
    -Gang Violence
    -Gun Violence
    -Haunted past regrets
    -Homelessness
    -Homophobia
    -Incest
    -Identity Self-Hatred
    -Income Inequality
    -Infidelity
    -Injuries
    -Isolation
    -Joblessness
    -Loss of meaning
    -Loss of values
    -Miscarriage
    -No Community
    -No Country to believe in
    -No Love
    -Orphanage
    -Pandemic
    -Paranoia
    -Pedophilia
    -Police Brutality
    -Poor Parenting
    -Poverty
    -Prison Abuse
    -Public Humiliation
    -Racism
    -Rape
    -Relationship Breakups
    -Sexual Abuse
    -Sex Addiction
    -Slavery
    -Terrorism
    -Torture
    -Transgenderism
    -Unemployment
    -Vehicle Accidents
    -War

  45. So according to your idea family men was not unhappy, depressed and lonely ?? Well then why cases of domestic violence and divorce are so many in Europe and America ?? Why there are so many family counselling services in the west ??

    God fearing people are less suicidal?? Maybe. BUT then why church father's are serial child molesters ?? Or probably child molestation is the cause of less suicidal behaviour ??

    And not everyone on earth is middle class burguise people.