Change the mood between different age groups
"Covid-19" made the elderly feel happier than the young
Elderly people feel that they are being taken care of more.
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The elderly feel happier than the young during the Corona pandemic.
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Unemployment is another source of youth unhappiness in America.
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The Corona virus has changed the mood among the world's age groups. The elderly have become happier, and the young are more unhappy.
For example, the "Covid-19" virus has greatly affected the undergraduate student at Seoul National University, Park Ha Young, who has spent most of the past year concerned about the epidemic and its chances of spreading.
"I was afraid of becoming someone who would cause a major outbreak of the epidemic," she says.
Her freedom is severely restricted, and she is subject to government instructions if she wants to see her friends or attend classes, which makes her frustrated and unable to plan.
She began to worry about finding a job after her graduation.
Politicians and officials often talk about the impact of "Covid-19" on public health and the economy.
But for most people, these are just political considerations.
What they feel every day are moods of anxiety, sadness and happiness at times.
During the celebration of the International Day of Happiness, on March 20, researchers associated with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network tried to determine this mood, study the extent of its change by the epidemic, and raise questions about it.
The pollsters, Gallup, are asking these same questions in dozens of countries.
She suggests that people imagine a ladder in steps numbered from zero to 10, with the upper rung representing the best condition a person could live in, and the lower rung being the worst.
And she asks the respondents what degree they think they are now.
Some stayed happy
The responses of the respondents regarding this ladder, known as “Cantrell Ladder,” indicate, somewhat surprisingly, that some parts of the world remained happy even during the horrific Corona pandemic, as they were before this virus struck it.
The average scores across 95 countries, regardless of population, rose slightly from 5.81 in 2017-2019 to 5.85 in 2020. But the pattern of life satisfaction has changed.
Covid-19 made the elderly more joyful, and few countries were not happy, but other countries got more.
And "Covid-19" threatens the elderly much more than the young, as the risk of death doubles after contracting the disease whenever the patient is eight years older than other patients, yet the elderly feel happy during its spread.
Globally, happiness increased between 2017-2019 and 2020 by 0.22 points on the Cantrell scale among people over the age of 60.
São Paulo psychologist Selena Beatrice Gazetti dos Santos, 64, lists the things that could dampen her mood: pandemic, rampant corruption, obnoxious government and the misery of others.
Yet she declares herself increasingly happy and optimistic.
In Britain, a country with excellent data on happiness, some feelings have decreased more than others.
And in other rich countries, age groups were feeling happy before the outbreak spread almost well.
But after the outbreak of the epidemic, young people became more gloomy, while feeling happy over the age of fifty.
Today, the young are less satisfied than the middle-aged, who are less satisfied than the elderly.
This may be attributed to the British vaccination program, which first targeted the elderly.
But this pattern has barely changed, over the past year.
Video conferencing programs have enabled many elderly people to stay in touch with their families, sometimes better than it was before the pandemic.
And in countries that have closed their doors, the elderly are happy that society has made sacrifices to protect them.
As University of British Columbia economist John Hilliwell, who wrote part of the World Happiness Report, points out, older people feel healthier.
Globally, 36% of men over the age of 60 reported experiencing a health problem in the past year, down from an average of 46% in the previous three years.
As for women, their share of health problems decreased from 51 to 42%.
Perhaps the elderly are not healthy, and yet, the "Covid-19" virus has changed their feelings. They feel better health because they have survived a disease that could kill them.
Job loss
Meanwhile, young people continued to suffer a difficult year, as many lost their jobs in America, and the unemployment rate for people between the ages of 20 and 24 increased from 6.3% in February 2020 to 25.6% two months later (it decreased again to 9.6% per month. the past).
In some wealthy countries, young women have had particularly hard times.
Often women workers are in sectors, such as hospitality, that have been closed.
When schools closed, many became burdened with more than their fair share of childcare.
And one of the studies, conducted by researchers at the University of Essex, Ben Etheridge and Lisa Spantig, about Britain, revealed that women who had four close friends, at least, fell happier than anyone else during the spring 2020 lockdown period. , "People who used to see a lot of friends became really suffering, and also women and youth who had more friends."
The rise of Germany
On the other hand, some countries performed better than others, while the happiness of the British declined in 2020, Germany rose from the fifteenth place in the happiness standard in the world to occupy the seventh place, and Britain suffered long closures as the increase in the death rate reached 190 per 100,000 people Since the beginning of the epidemic.
The increase in the death rate in Germany is only 77 per 100,000 deaths.
Remarkably, the countries that were at the top of the happiness map before the epidemic remained in their place.
The three highest-ranked countries in 2020, Finland, Iceland and Denmark were among the first four countries in 2017-2019 in the happiness standard, as these three countries dealt well with "Covid-19", and have an increase in death rates of less than 21 per 100,000. .
Iceland has a negative rate, and it can be described as a remote island in isolation from other countries.
Polls conducted by Gallup show that many places that have dealt better with "Covid-19", such as the Nordic countries and New Zealand, have broad confidence in institutions and strangers.
A large majority of its residents believe that the neighbor "will return the wallet, if he finds it."
Countries have failed to get rid of "Covid-19" for several obvious reasons.
Some of them are due to poverty conditions, others have dealt badly with the pandemic, some lack recent experience with diseases such as SARS, and some countries have not been able to guard their borders.
But Columbia University economist Geoffrey Sachs suggests another reason: Politicians and officials in many wealthy European and American countries have made sure that they cannot expect many of the public to obey their instructions.
The combination of individualism and low institutional confidence made these officials feel unable to force the public to quarantine, or wear masks, until the situation became miserable.
If true, it may help explain this broad regional change in happiness rates: declining happiness in Latin America, and increasing happiness in East Asia.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are less happy in 2020;
China, Japan and Taiwan became happier, although South Korea fell slightly.
It is as if the countries of Latin America were enjoying the wrong kind of happiness before 2020, says Hilliwell, happiness perpetuated by people's close social bonds, rather than through high levels of social trust.
The prevailing lack of confidence has made it difficult for Latin American countries to address "Covid-19" in a comprehensive manner.
Sure, people can practice social distancing, but this is difficult emotionally in countries where people are naturally social.
Mexicans have banned their entertainment lunches on Fridays, and family gatherings on Sundays (although some continue to practice these customs anyway).
“The epidemic has changed things a lot,” said Edmilson de Sousa Santos, a construction worker in a São Paulo suburb.
A great national puzzle
There is still a big national puzzle.
America responded badly to "Covid-19", suffering more than 500 deaths per 100,000 people.
However, the Gallup poll revealed a slight increase in the level of happiness of Americans in 2020. A survey conducted by the University of Southern California showed that psychological tension and anxiety had escalated in America, in the past March and April, but then they calmed down.
And two successive waves of infection and death did not seem to bother Americans any more.
Many US states have adopted somewhat unconventional lockdown methods, at least for adults, as restrictions on schoolchildren can seem unconstrained.
And that would have kept the morale of the people.
The University of Oxford researcher, Abi Adams, Russell, and other researchers revealed that the first wave of lockdown last spring led to a decline in women's moods.
Polls conducted by Gallup show that many places that have dealt better with "Covid-19", such as the Nordic countries and New Zealand, have widespread confidence in institutions and strangers. A large majority of its residents believe that the neighbor "will return the wallet, if he finds it."
Politicians and officials, in many wealthy European and American countries, cannot expect many of the public to obey their instructions. A combination of individualism and low institutional confidence made these officials feel unable to force the public to quarantine, or wear masks, until the situation became miserable.
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