We’re Thinking About Young Adulthood All Wrong
The notion that your 20s are the best years of your life is more rumor than reality. It shows up in songs, films, ads, social-media posts—but it says more about Americans’ idealization of youth than it does about what it actually feels like to be young today. The 2024 World Happiness Report found that when American adults were asked to rate the extent to which they were living their “best possible life,” those over 60 answered the most positively, followed by 45-to-59-year-olds.