People aren't happy anymore

It's extremely difficult to secure - and even sustain - happiness as a concept in our lives nowadays. I'm going to begin with this - people just aren't happy anymore compared to the way they used to be in the past. Obviously things are far different in the present compared to how they were back then, but the one thing that remained the same was that we as humans have tried nothing less but to pursue our happiness.

As a second-year student in university, I would consider myself extremely blessed and lucky.

Having little to no worries about whether or not there would be food available on my plate during mealtimes, or whether there was a place to sleep at night. To have had such a relatively smooth sailing process in life so far was something I often took for granted at different points in my life.

The introduction of social media and new technology has made living really, really easy for everyone in that communication could be achieved with just a simple tap of a device.

However, that was a problem.

Since life had been made so much more convenient and available for everybody to use, life's degree of difficulty spiked up exponentially as a result.

In my opinion, life has nearly been reduced to a rat race where just about everyone is forced to participate in regardless on whether they chose not to or not. There is so much pressure generated from this virtual, social network made accessible to all of us that every day becomes a struggle to avoid being consumed and suffocated by this madness.

While it is true that trends and interests shift from time to time, everything feels exaggerated in our current generation where a passion or product would be the object of everyone's eyes one day - and then the next day something else would replace it.

I'm a frequent user of technology, and honestly can't express how useful it is to tap a few times to find out new information, call a loved one or purchase something online. In spite of all the ease and convenience, I can't help but feel that something is missing in lieu of the fact that everything appears to be available.

And that's when it hit me - there was just too much that was available and accessible to us.

We don't need to see how much better someone in our social circle is doing in life. We don't need to see the glitz and glamour of the people who've made it big so we can sulk to ourselves and wish we could do the same, to have the same. What's really the point of seeing how many designer shoes a friend owns in his sneaker collection, or seeing the fancy interior of a star's mansion?

If anything, comparisons to others shouldn't be a widely accepting societal norm. Comparing someone's displayed successes to one's own insecurities, doubts and failures is a recipe for disaster. In this case, unhappiness.

It doesn't even feel like people are happy anymore despite the fact that they smile brightly in front of their smartphone cameras before they take an image of themselves. Everyone is encouraged to align with the norms of society nowadays where showing off the things we want people to see is our reality now, when in fact - ironically - it isn't the least bit real.

Sometimes life can feel like weathering a storm, or trying to walk up a slushy hill after the snow begins to melt in winter.

Perhaps I could be mistaken projecting this opinion of mine, but I'm fairly certain most of today's generation feel this way deep down. I haven't met a single person who was as perfect as his or her social media profiles portrayed him or her to be.

It would be really nice to take a break from all this stress and pressure that we and society inflict upon ourselves.

But hey, that's just life, isn't it?