so are you happy it should be an easy
question to answer right it should be
black or white yes or no happy or not
but many factors go into her happiness
and those factors vary from person to
person place to place
moment to moment and from generation to
generation our society now can these
elements that weren’t important to or
even experienced by the people of the
past but do those extra elements make it
harder for Gen Z to be happy and if so
how can we cheer up to really understand
happiness we first have to ask how do we
know that we’re happy for me my
happiness stems from being a people I
love doing something I love so right now
in this moment I’m happy I’m happy when
I’m running when I’m with my friends and
family when I’m listening to music and
when I’m eating mac and cheese we don’t
really have any control over when we
feel happy or what makes us happy you
can’t make yourself feel anything it’s
just what you feel happiness exists in
details and those details are different
for every single person and can vary
from moment to moment for example I
could be eating mac and cheese or
feeling happy because the noodles are
just too soggy I could be running but
feeling happy because wow my knee eggs
and it’s a Friday and I’d so much rather
be inside with my friends instead we
can’t control the weather outside or
they saw over the sagginess of our
noodles and those little curveballs that
life throws at us can snatch weight a
happiness to be feeling otherwise and
unfortunately our generation gets thrown
a lot of interesting curveballs today
especially for many of us in the Silicon
Valley life is simpler we no longer have
to grab a bow and arrow and hunt down
our next meal or worry for crops you’re
gonna get us to the winter we in Gen Z
you don’t have to fabricate our own
houses or cup chopped firewood to keep
ourselves warm nope all it takes for us
just to drive through in and out on the
way back to our three bedroom three in a
bath house the bath bath homes and ask
Alexa to turn on the heat so if our
basics are all taken care of by our
advanced society why aren’t we all happy
as I mentioned earlier happiness exists
in the details there are two way to
derive happiness intrinsically
extrinsically according to the wily
encyclopedia of management intrinsic
motivation is the motivation to do
something for the sake of the task for
the sheer enjoyment of the task
extrinsic motivation is the motivation
to do something to mean an externally
imposed constraint or fulfill some
external goal simplify I have an
intrinsic motivation to watch friends or
make waffles because I love to but I
have an extrinsic motivation to do the
AP US history reading responses because
I have to get them done for a grade and
extremely composed constraint we do
things we are intrinsically motivated to
do because we love them because they
make us happy on the flip side we do
things where extrinsic motivated to do
because we feel like we have to because
they make other people happy not us my
generation has more extrinsic
motivations than any other we
technically have things easier in terms
of surviving and thriving in our more
technologically advanced society as a
result although generations have set
higher expectations for us in the other
areas of our lives
such as education and inner life goals
this is especially true in the southern
Valley where at Mountain View high last
spring semester thirteen point eight
percent of students are an unweighted
four-fight house probably one in a crazy
amount of AP and honors classes students
tear themselves apart in order to fit
into the mold of success here we and Gen
Z have to be well-rounded with high
grades hours and hours of volunteer
service thrown a couple varsity sports
languished fluencies and master level
instrument playing and maybe will get
into the college of our dreams
and once we’re there we continue to work
hard pushing ourselves in a stressful
robe that often does not even provide to
us the easy perfect happy lives that
older generations have envisioned for us
we follow this route in professions that
we are not passionate about with
students who love and who live and
breathe through the fine arts throwing
away that passion to pursue a more
marketable skill it feels like we are
being forced down this path Society has
provided for us our society as a whole
is an extrinsic motivator for a
predetermined definition of success and
Happiness becomes an unattainable
concept because we’re being forced to do
something
feels impossible to be happy now or in
the future but gen Z also sets
expectations for itself for example it’s
expected for every team to have Facebook
Instagram and snapchat for starters but
also maybe Twitter reddit communication
apps who we chat staying up-to-date on
up-and-coming platforms YouTube channel
a Google+ maybe even a LinkedIn if
you’re ambitious but why are we even on
social media I understand the
connectivity aspect of it I have family
in Paris Shanghai and Germany and I
won’t have insight into the infant into
their daily lives without it I also
totally confessed tagging my friends in
countless memes and videos of the
horrible cats but at a certain point kin
sharing become a negative thing our
friends and the people at school can all
see the pictures we post online and
embarrassing snaps we send with the rise
of filters in Photoshop social media has
become sort of twisted in a perfect
world we could take one picture of
something we’re enjoying share with our
supportive chums on the internet and
receive loads of positive feedback
without any fear of judgment but today
multiple pics are taken to make sure
everybody looks cute and got their good
side the perfect pic is is chosen and
probably in a group chat and is edited
and cropped bits that all our friends on
the internet can see the perfect people
we want them to see the perfect you and
they’re perfect me is this connectivity
or is it just another detail for Gen Z
to worry about another extrinsic
motivator to show everyone that we can
in fact lead the perfect lives lead
perfect lives even if we’re not happy
doing it and then we worry and stress
over when we don’t reach our usual
amount of likes do they think I’m ugly
is this annoying do they think I’m not
cool and so we post something even more
impressive to earn back the love of our
peers this vicious negative cycle cycle
perpetuates itself and fails to fulfill
the promise that those likes comments
and retweets will make Gen Z more happy
even worse things that we used to love
and works really motivated to do because
things become driven by our desire to
appear perfect personally it’s hard for
need to feel happy today because there
always feels like there’s something else
that I could be doing like right now I
could be studying for the SAT or
learning fluency backs or figuring out
how to conjugate the conditional passe
the sheer number of to do is we have now
in order to guarantee our happiness in
the future is crazy
and because all the things we need to do
now we can’t spend any of our valuable
valuable time doing things that actually
bring us happiness I used to love
learning French and reading and I will
take four years of French and Advanced
honors courses in high school but I
won’t be to further my knowledge of
either subject it’ll be to make myself
appear more attractive to universities
how wrong is that by now I’ve lost most
of the love I once had for from say or
retired in what did you use to love
although it feels impossible we can be
happy but it’ll take a lot of mental
work focus on what truly makes you happy
what when you what brings you rod joy or
you if you think about that place that
activity that thing that person you
cannot help but smile recognize those
things but also recognize the things
that bring you dread I’m not saying that
if high school makes you unhappy drop
out maybe try to find a way to actually
enjoy school focused more uncompromising
instead of achieving a 5.0 GPA balance
the advanced courses you have to take to
fulfill whatever your goal in life is
with a couple classes that you really
truly love take those courses so you
still have enough time to be happy to
have fun to be a team according to a
poll conducted by brownie we’re a nurse
in a terminal palliative care unit one
of the largest regrets of the dying was
that they did not think that happiness
was a choice you pretend to be content
because you’re too afraid to explore
where is poll tells us to seize the
moment to toss aside the judgments of
others we should focus on the small good
things and the big great things in our
lives and live and live to pursue those
moments that lift us up and make a smile
do we want to look back on
five ten fifty years from now and wish
we’d lived differently maybe taking a
regular course and a time to for a day
trip with our parents maybe turned off
for Instagram notification so that we
could truly live in the moment I know
it’s hard but ignore the societal
pressure to do more do more do more
ignore the stream of reactions to your
Facebook post ignore always trying to
look act and be perfect
better yet ignore snapchat let the
streak die a well-known way to keep
practicing this do it makes you happy
mindset is to imagine all the time in
your life as an empty jar now put self
Oh big big rocks in your jar so that
four or five fill up all the space
these rocks represent the most important
things in your life to represent your
structure the things that you should
always keep near you for example your
your parents your family and your health
are rough now add pebbles to your jar
pebbles are the smaller things that are
still really relatively important to us
like our friendships and our grades in
school
pebbles make our life even fuller but
sands completely fills our jar sand is
our the tiny tiny details in our lives
things like social media which honestly
are mostly filler and really aren’t that
important room again your rocks and your
pebbles are smaller things in life so
losing one of them wouldn’t destroy you
like losing a rock way so when you kind
of sort of fail a physics test or bomb
Spanish quiz or don’t get over 200 likes
in your Instagram post hold onto the
fact that you still have your friends
your family your rocks and your pebbles
your solid sources of happiness to stay
happy on a daily basis remember the
bigger picture in your life and that’ll
help you get over the loss of a grain of
sand thank you [Applause]