The Paradox of Progress

Despite longer life spans, better medicine, lower childhood mortality rates and technological advancements, Americans’ happiness levels are plummeting like never before seen in history.

UTC sophomore Mckenzie Carver walks to class on a brisk November morning feeling distracted, tiresome, and not herself. She has two tests, a presentation, a paper to write, and a 6 hour shift as a server as Champy’s. Nothing is going wrong in her life -- she’s making good grades and good money -- but for some reason she doesn’t feel satisfied -- an issue almost every modern college student deals with. This lack of fulfillment is rampant throughout American culture and has recently been given a name: the Paradox of Progress.

According to Mark Manson’s best seller Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, “[P]eople are more educated than ever before...violence has trended down for decades...we have more rights…[and] poverty is at an all time low.”

Shockingly though, since 1985, men and women have reported lower levels of life satisfaction, Manson wrote.

“Stress levels have risen…[and] nearly half of all Americans now report feeling isolated, left out, or alone in their lives.”

America is currently the world’s #1 super power -- the richest and most advanced country in the world -- although it is only 18th on the World Happiness Report and has fallen lower on the scale each year.

The problem, though, is society is the safest and most prosperous it has been in the history of the world, yet people are feeling more hopeless than ever before.

As Manson wrote, “[T]he better things get, the worse we seem to feel.”

In an essay by Bob Morehead titled “The Paradox of Our Age,” he stated, “[W]e have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values...we’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years...we’ve conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air but polluted the soul.”

Many think that technology, specifically social media, is the culprit of this unhappiness and unrest in society.

According to UTC student Kayla Valdivia, “with the progress we created to connect better with each other: social media, we accidentally created unreachable standards, separating us more.”

While there may have always been issues of human isolation in the past, UTC philosophy professor Dr. Brian Ribeiro said the idea of the Paradox of Progress is a modern problem not addressed in philosophical texts throughout history, meaning society truly has reached new heights of progress because it is dealing with new heights of the repercussions of it.

Despite this, it seems that society could deal with the Paradox of Progress as it has dealt with every other side-effect of progress throughout in the past: re-working and revising issues left from each generation. For example, after the Baby Boomers spent their lives “keeping up with the Joneses,” a successful push for financial well-being and dealing with jealousy was addressed under the reality that “the Joneses are broke,” as it was told to millennials in school. Millennials are now said to be the generation least concerned with material possessions, said Marketing Week.

“[Today’s young people] value living a life of purpose and direct their attention to discover meaningful experiences,” said Marking Week. “This contrasts with the parents of millennials, she claims, who were more inclined at this age to equate material wealth with happiness.”

If material obsession could be resolved after the Baby Boomers, maybe the lowering happiness rates can too.

“Society's already trying to do something about the plummeting happiness levels,” said Valdivia. “There’s been a huge push for mental health and awareness: more counseling, resources, stress management, and safer medications. It seems like mental health is trying to keep up with society’s progress, but is just slower to arrive.”

According to writer Bob Morehead of “The Paradox of Our Age,” the best thing people can do right now is slow down.

“Give time to love, give time to speak, and most importantly give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind,” Morehead wrote.

Maybe blonde haired, fun-loving Carver can find deep rooted satisfaction and happiness, or maybe it will take a future generation to teach her how, but to think that humanity is on a downward spiral of infinitely increasing unhappiness is a dangerous misconception.

“Happiness is marketed so much these days as a goal in and of itself,” Manson says. “Buy X and be happy. Learn Y and be happy. But you can’t buy happiness and you can’t achieve happiness. It just is.”