Generation X and Y: Happiness
This morning in class, as an effort to get the students thinking about John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarian philosophy, I asked them to make a list of five things they need to be happy. It could be as abstract as “freedom” and as concrete as “food”, I said. Then they were to rank them and turn to a neighbor to compare. I expected at least some major differences in rankings and/or happiness-needs. Take a minute to mentally do the exercise on your own: below the fold, I’ll talk about the results.
The students in my class belong to “Generation Y”, young people who have never had to use a rotary phone and for whom the Internet has always been an existing reality. (I can remember first seeing the sluggish Netscape Navigator at the US Naval Academy in the EE department, and going to a network room where the shrieks and whistles of the dialup tones were constant.)
In that sense, at least, I’m an old fogey to them–though I’m sure some of my readers will say, “Hey, I used punchcards and coded in FORTRAN when it was cool!” Okay, FORTRAN was never cool. But that’s beside the point.
The results of my mini survey showed that the students mostly seemed to agree on the most important things and their priority. I, as a Gen-X-er, was thinking in pretty individual terms, about my own freedoms, ability to be compensated, pursue my dreams, etc. Them?
1. Love
2. Family
3. Friends
Cell phones also came pretty high up in the list. “Freedom” got added on after we went through the entire class’s brainstorming. They did see the possibility of conflict between aims of happiness, though, so in that sense, the small task was a success. So, too, was the discussion about whether Mill’s idea of human sympathy as a motivator is too optimistic. Seeing the world through another generation’s eyes is yet another benefit to teaching.