Our generation is pretty awesome if you think of it.

We’ve changed the rules of the game. You don’t have to be an engineer, doctor or lawyer to “make it” in life. With the start-up culture, we’re also seeing successful CEOs who are younger than ever. With technology, the world has become smaller.

Even if some of us live far away from families, we’re in a way closer than ever. It’s also easier for us to meet new people and find those who’re interested in the same things. You could actually say, this is possibly the best time to be a young person at the threshold of life. 

And yet, there’s a void we can’t define. Why are so many of us still unhappy?

When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

When Friedrich Nietzsche said that, he was probably onto something. Or maybe he was on something. We’ll never know. But you know the thing about abysses and voids, right? They exist when something else doesn’t.

Our generation knows a void when it sees one.

No, I’m not talking about potholes in Bangalore. Rather the more existential kind – the one we grapple with even when we have everything.

A good job, a family that values our independence, for many even a stable relationship – we have all of it.

We go out with friends on weekends and take short vacations when we can. If you are someone who has all or most of these, you can safely say your life is better than most people in this country (This is pretty much the blog version of the first world problem meme… but that’s okay). And yet, for some reason, we aren’t happy.

Don’t get me wrong, the void is not the same for everyone.

Many of us think we’re happy with our jobs when we’re only just happy with our salaries.

If you had to count using your fingers, the number of people who are happy with their salary and yet not with the work they do to earn it, you’d need way too many hands. Despite the inflation, so many of us are earning more than what our predecessors were earning at this age. I’m not saying you have to brag about it, but yeah, it’s a good feeling. You can go out to the best restaurants, you can buy all sorts of cool stuff for your family members – whether it’s a fancy phone for your mom or a cool tab for your dad. 

But can money buy you the satisfaction of a job well done? 

For some of us, it’s the struggle between quality and marketability, and for some others, it’s about working in a job you’re not really passionate about. Or it could be one of dozen other reasons I can’t put my finger on.

And then there are those who are living a good life but know they aren’t leading a good life.

There’s a huge difference between living the good life and leading a good life (Damn, I should tweet that). We rent the best apartments, we go to sign on with the best gyms, we watch the best films, we buy the “coolest” clothes, and that too online. What a time to be alive, eh? And yet the void keeps getting bigger everyday. And no, it’s not about some unending greed that is fuelled by clever ads targeted at us individually. Like, I know for a fact that even if I get my hands on the ridiculously expensive gaming laptop that I can’t afford right now, I’d still be unhappy. We cannot fill the void with ‘things’.

It could also be about plans that remain… well, plans.

“I’m gonna change my diet tomorrow.” “I’m gonna spend more time with my friends and family.” “Instead of going out to eat and watch movies with my partner, we’re gonna have more meaningful conversations. Because isn’t that why we liked each other in the first place?” Why can I not seem to turn these plans to action? Is it laziness? Are we too tired? Is it some fear of leaving the comfort zone? Is it inertia?

Some of us are not happy with what we’ve become.

Most of us live the ‘fast life’. Whether it’s work or our personal lives, we need quick results. In everything. Nothing wrong with that per se, but in doing so we’ve become very impatient, as a generation. And there’s a thin line between being impatient and being a dick. Impatience blurs our ability to see things from the other person’s perspective and that is something we cannot lose if happiness is the end goal. On the other end of the spectrum, some of us are unhappy because we can’t say ‘No’. That might get you the ‘likeable’ tag but in the end you won’t go anywhere.

Point is, despite having things and achieving so many goals, we still feel empty. No, I didn’t just read some nihilist handbook. I’m not here to tell you that nothing really matters. I’m as clueless as you are.

So what is it that creates this emptiness?

Could it be that our generation has access to so much when it comes to news and pop-culture that nothing amazes us anymore? From a generation of ‘wow’ we’ve become a generation ‘yeah, whatever’. No, we don’t have to fake it, but if we cannot find joy in the little things then no matter how much we achieve or how many things we hoard, we’ll never be truly happy.

Also, in my opinion, people usually tend to get bored. That’s it. Anything that goes on for too long, without being shaken up once in a while, can become cumbersome. Our relationships, our friendships, our careers, our daily lives in general – we cannot allow any of it to stagnate.

But that’s just me. What do you think?