Think back to a good time you recently had with a loved one: an hours-long conversation with a friend or a perfect night of watching TV on the couch with family. I’d venture to guess you still feel a little surge of warmth when you recall it. It’s an intuitive truth that everybody needs these experiences to live a happy life, and recent happiness research suggests that young people can only really flourish when they have “real-life human contact and love,” Arthur C. Brooks writes. Social connection and community is important for human well-being—not least because it aids in the process of finding meaning and feeling that one’s life has purpose, Brooks notes.

But young people are facing a series of roadblocks to finding that meaning: Institutions such as organized religion are in decline, and alternative communities are hard to find, especially when young adults are glued to technology. These trends are by now well-known—and yet the path to a better life might come down to incorporating a few basic principles, Brooks argues. The first one? “Put close relationships with family and friends before virtually everything else.”

On Happiness and Connection

Why Are Young People Everywhere So Unhappy?

By Arthur C. Brooks

Here’s the answer to that—and what we can do about it.

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What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life

By Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has established a strong correlation between deep relationships and well-being. The question is, how does a person nurture those deep relationships?

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The Anti-Social Century

By Derek Thompson

Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.

Read the article.

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