Jessie Haas

Professor Lisa Fitzgerald

English 1

2 December 2017

Essay Four Outline

Introduction: Despite our societys obsession with happiness, many people are looking for

happiness in the wrong places. Somewhere along the way the idea entered the public

consciousness that happiness lies in external validation, whether it be the admiration of your

peers or the amount of money you have in your bank account. For many people, their current

efforts for well-being are a massive waste of time and resources.

Thesis: Americans are sold an artificial view of happiness which keeps us in a never-ending,

exhausting race to accumulate superficial achievements, despite very little, if any, benefit on

our well-being, because well-being actually correlates to community over social media,

nature over urbanization, reaching your full potential over high-status, and simplicity over

materialism. You can create your own happiness by weaving these things into your life, even

if you cannot commit entirely to these ideals.

Background: Ever since the Industrial Revolution, American society has moved away from

simplicity, nature, and community, as we left our small rural communities and crowded into

cities, and became increasingly more secular, and as churches stopped being the center of

socialization for most communities with nothing emerging to replace them. Even though we

are living in an age where our well-being levels should be high, as advances in technology
and medicine make life easier and more painless for the average person, we seem to be

obsessed with chasing happiness, which indicates that there is a lack of it in our lives.

Although it is not feasible to expect the average person to live a pre-Industrial Revolution

life, the key to happiness lies in implementing old values such as simplicity, community, and

nature into our 21st century lives as best we can.

Body/counter arguments:

Community over social media

-Presenting as a happy person on social media to many feels like proof that they are happy.

Constantly being connected to the people you know via Facebook can create the illusion that

you have an active social life

-This is artificial because social media doesnt paint the whole picture, and it is an artificial

substitute for actual community

-Not everyone who has strong social ties is happy, but it seems like in order to be happy you

have to have strong social ties

-Join communities. Even actively engaging on social media rather than passively scrolling

can create a sense of connectivity and community

Nature over urbanization

-Our status as a developed country often rests on our civic achievements. Big

cities/urbanization are seen as necessary advancements for a prosperous society and therefore

prosperous individuals
-People who live in cities are actually consistently less happy than those who live in the

suburbs, and those who live in the suburbs are consistently less happy than those who live in

rural communities

-Although city parks are an improvement, and a persons well-being tends to increase when

they have access to parks/views of parks, people are happier in actual nature than in parks

-Since not everyone can leave cities, either utilizing parks or using any extra money on trips

to nature, thereby not only creating experiences but also exposing yourself to nature, is one

way to implement these values into your life

Reaching your full potential over status-seeking

-Many people feel they will be happy if they are admired, or have achieved a high level of

status

-Extrinsic validation has no correlation with genuine well-being

-Maslows hierarchy of needs and Csikszentmihalyis idea of flow as indicating reaching

your full potential, self-actualization

-Focusing on becoming the best version of yourself, even if that seems like it would fall short

by some arbitrary societal standard, and focusing on self-actualization and honing your own

unique talents are more important than having high status in society

Simplicity over materialism

-The accumulation of stuff is often passively accepted as being a key component to happiness

-Stuff doesnt make you happy, and assuming that it does is the easiest way to get stuck on

the Hedonic treadmill

-While frugality itself doesnt make a person happy, people who live materially simplistic

lifestyles, such as the Voluntary Simplicity movement and the Amish consistently have

higher levels of well-being than those who do not

-While you dont have to cancel your electricity and throw out your television, adopting a

maxim of less is more and placing less importance on material possessions is a seemingly

small change that can make a big impact

Conclusion: The good news is that the things that actually make us happy in many cases are

easier to achieve than our misconceptions about what makes us happy. Simplicity and

community can be the easiest things in the world to implement into your life. There is no

need to overcomplicate the pursuit of happiness. The problem lies in letting go of your long-

held myths about what you think will make you happy. Nearly everyone, barring extreme

circumstances, can implement these ideas into their lives. Happiness is a process rather than a

reward were given for unlocking achievements, and the process is not unattainable for the

average person. The key is to live intentionally, and not get caught as a passive contestant in

the race for status and stuff.

*I really dont know how its all going to want to flow together until I start actually writing it,

so this is probably not how I will end up actually structuring the body and counter arguments.

This is the information that I want to talk about but it will probably change a lot from now

until Im finished with my first draft.