Happiness, Ranked and Revealed

Understanding younger Americans “happiness” drop off has to include the conversation of carefully cultivated social and news media intake

The remark attributed to Benjamin Disraeli that “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics” needs a modern updating to include “rankings.”

Oh, how the internet information age ever loves to rank anything and everything. Make a ranking, make sure to include — or exclude — something or someone that will instantly garner a reaction, and voila, instant content for the engagement media model.

Among other things being ranked, and thus discussed, is the World Happiness Report 2024, which true to its name attempts to rank happiness across the globe by country broken down by age cohort. The United States of America did not fare well:

North America does not fare as well overall. As a nation, the United States dropped in the global ranking from 15th to 23rd. But researchers point to striking generational divides.

People aged 60 and older in the U.S. reported high levels of well-being compared to younger people. In fact, the United States ranks in the top 10 countries for happiness in this age group.

Conversely, there’s a decline…