Apparently, 30 is not the new 20.
In somewhat surprising news, new research shows that your 30s are pretty much going to suck.
This, of course, contradicts conventional wisdom that in your 30s you’ll be happier as you learn to sit comfortably in your own skin, dropping the angst that riddled your 20s in the process. We’re told that things like financial stability, kids, and simply “figuring it all out” would result in increased life satisfaction as one gets older.
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Upon analyzing survey data on the “subjective well-being” of 1.3 million respondents between the ages of 13 and 96 – which was collected between 1970 and 2014 – researcher Jean Twenge found that, beginning in 2010, the opposite seems to be true when subjects were asked, “Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?”
Maybe all that “conventional wisdom” was just an old wives tale to make us feel better about the impending grey hairs and wrinkles?
“In the last five years, the once-reliable correlation between age and happiness among adults has vanished,” says Twenge in The Atlantic. “Adults 30 and over are less happy than they used to be, while, teens and young adults are happier; in fact, adults over 30 are no longer happier than their younger counterparts. It seems that mature adults’ happiness has waned, while young people’s happiness has flourished.”
Not exactly reassuring news, right?
Twenge and her research team aren’t certain about the cause for this buzz-killing new trend, though they do offer one potential explanation: the inconsistencies between people’s grand expectations and actual reality. The thought is that young adults still hold on to that dreamy after-school special notion that life’s possibilities are limitless… until they realize that reality isn’t going to necessarily match up.
Like discovering the truth about Santa Claus as children, they feel they’ve been lied to in terms of what to expect they’ll achieve in life (and likely blame their parents).
“With expectations so high, less happiness in adulthood may be the inevitable result,” Twenge writes. “Big dreams feel great when you’re an adolescent or a young adult just starting out… [but] when those dreams are more widespread than they used to be, the inevitable crash will be, too.”
That is, of course, unless you are among the lucky set whose young professional life turned out much better than could be expected.
Not surprisingly, Twenge also casts blame at modern culture and its focus on individualism. With modern day digital technology interfering with our opportunities for “emotionally close, long-term relationships,” today’s culture seems to work against people over the age of 30, who grew up developing connections the old-fashioned, organic way. Of course, the contradiction to this is the over 30 set who met their significant other online.
Maybe the key is to live like many do with zero expectations so that anything more is a pleasant surprise.
With that said, most of my friends who are over the age of 30 couldn’t be happier… but that could be because we all (miraculously) turned out okay.
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