Author: Prajjwal
From Aristotelian ethics of Eudaimonia (Greek term for happiness and highest human good) to a different perception of it in 2020 – the word happiness, stands undefined, immeasurable, and is generational. Happiness is multidimensional and the sum of momentary pleasures, they say, while there are few reports of having it measured by answering the questionnaire in a myriad of surveys.
So what keeps the GenZ happy?
Digital Happiness: Dopamine is a colossal stock market trade in the digital industry. The colors, the sound of notifications, and taps, each of them have tailored to our emotions. Gen-Zers are curating their happiness for approval, and they feel dead inside when they reside in a bubble of illusion that people like their pic but not them, not their real life. Since its inception, social media apps have a ubiquitous influence on its users. We know not to trust digitally altered images, yet we are glued to the screen to find out what’s cooking up with the Kardashians or how Carlos Sainz is honing the skills of Lando Norris in golf. Lolologies and lmao’s have invaded real happiness, and it seems that we are literally hanging out with the virtual dead.
Love Aaj Kal: Traditionalists invested a good amount of time in building relationships with their loved ones and have devoted enough time to keep their foundations stalwart and loyal. Human interaction encompasses a major portion of meaningful happiness. Our relation and bonds with our peers, family, friends, and pets are like sprawled figures basking in the afternoon sun. Imtiaz Ali’s tour of past and present romance in Love Aaj Kal has brought out a clear distinction in generational love, but are Gen-Zers getting encountered with an ounce of lust rather than a tinge of love? Spontaneity and uncertainties have sabotaged the virtual platforms where we go hot and cold on interpreting and decoding each word of a text or be it the number of emojis used.
About Us: Our willingness to volunteer independent decisions and to do what we wish to pursue is governing to be another central principle of happiness. Gen-Zers have become the forefront of metamorphosis in today’s COVID-ridden world, where emotions are getting commodified on confining ourselves to the four walls of the room. We do strive to attain perfection, the way Christopher Nolan does, but when we fail to do so, are we acutely aware of the coping mechanisms we must follow? Are we taught how to face rejection and miseries in life? It is quite strenuous to understand the ways of living without experiencing harsh and ugly realities when we want to receive appreciation, care, love, and attention from the people we adore.
Prettified with Louis Vuitton wardrobe, Gucci glasses, inebriated with Domaine de la Romanee, and stepping out of a chauffeur-driven Limousines. This part of my life… this part right here? This is called “happyness.” Through the lens of a Gen- Zer, from the movie Pursuit of Happyness part 2. Duality is an intuitive and confusing nature of all the things around us to be two-fold, day and night, life and death, optimism and pessimism, happiness, and sadness (until Netflix came up with the existence of triquetra in Dark). Duality is a significant factor in all the emotions we possess because the absence of one of them will nullify the existence of the other. To conclude, to be happy is not as easy as it is portrayed in this strategic Coca Cola tagline- ‘open happiness’. (Coca-Cola has stood for happiness and optimism since it launched in 1886.)
