The youth's holiday, the youth's crisis

Have you ever heard of the happiness U-curve? It is a controversial thesis in academia, but it briefly states the following: Happiness resembles the letter U. We are happy when we are young, we hit rock bottom with a midlife crisis, and we find peace in our later years. Of course, the conditions and average lives of every individual and every society are different from one another. In other words, not everyone may have such a U-curve. That is not our topic anyway. Consider that even experts who accept the U-curve now agree that this hypothesis is a thing of the past. Because young people, who were thought to be living their happiest version in their 20s, are no longer happy either. In fact, just like the world, they are in the midst of a major crisis. All research conducted shows that young people are much unhappier compared to the past, both in the world and in Turkey.

The trends of the last few years in the "World Happiness Report," which is published every year, show us that the state of unhappiness among young people is increasing even in Western countries that appear to be the happiest in the rankings. For example, the 2026 data highlights that young people in North America and Western Europe are unhappier than they were 15 years ago. The report, which avoids reducing the underlying causes of this situation to a single factor, says that social media usage could be significantly influential. Indeed, many platforms and studies emphasize that digitalization and social media usage push young people toward loneliness. Here, I would like to draw special attention to a contradiction that every age group is experiencing: I think that at no point in world history has humanity been so connected and yet so lonely at the same time. Let us also say that this situation carries a risk of depression for everyone. When we put loneliness aside, it has also been observed that in this period, where algorithms work in tandem with neoliberalism and have even given rise to a profession like "influencing," digital platforms weaken the sense of satisfaction in individuals. In simple terms, we watch others' lives, compare them with our own, and become unhappy. Let us state again: The 2026 report says that this 15-year trend of unhappiness cannot be explained solely by social media or digital transformation, but it is still an important factor.

What about Turkish youth? In the 2025 version of the World Happiness Report, Turkey was in 94th place in a ranking of 146 countries. In other words, regardless of age, our situation is not very bright. One does not need to be a fortune teller to sense that Turkey cannot be in the top ranks in such a ranking that also takes into account elements such as gross domestic product, freedom, transparency, life expectancy, and social support. Young people are just a part of this general situation... While writing this article, I also looked at the research and data shared within the country to focus specifically on young people. I would like to share two of them. One of these is the TUIK "Youth with Statistics, 2025" data. According to this, only 54.4% of young people in Turkey stated that they were happy. Similar data also exists in the Habitat Association's "Research Report on the Well-being of Youth in Turkey-6." According to this research, the rate of young people who are satisfied with their situation in 2025 is 54%. However, unlike the TUIK data, this report draws attention to a few points. First, this rate is far below the 71% level measured in 2017. In other words, fewer young people feel good compared to a few years ago. The second is that the rate of being hopeful for the future is below 50%. In short, less than half of the youth are hopeful about the future... Isn't that painful?

Let us leave the reports and data aside. Why is almost half of the Turkish youth not satisfied with their lives? Why is less than half of them hopeful about the future? My personal interpretation—which is by no means unpredictable—points to two interrelated structural problems. One is political... Young people are uncomfortable with the erosion process in the country of many concepts that have played an important role in the development of world history, such as democracy, the rule of law, transparency, equality, and liberty. How could they not be? The second is economic. Let us give an example. Turkey is one of the places with the highest youth unemployment among OECD countries. There is a widespread "NEET" (not in education, employment, or training) problem in Turkey. In other words, young people who are "neither in education nor in employment." One of the issues that young people—whether they have attended university or not—are most unhappy about in Turkey today is employment. Because the jobs they can find according to their qualifications are limited, and even if they find a job, they believe that the potential conditions will not satisfy them. After all, Turkey is a country of minimum wage earners. The desire to emigrate abroad that has formed in many young people, and the state of not getting married or having children, as the state frequently emphasizes today, are also related to this situation. In other words, it is impossible to make young people happy, let alone put them in a state of mind that would push them to get married and have children, without solving poverty and deprivation, by eroding the middle class, and furthermore, by pursuing policies that will increase the gap between income groups. It is difficult to solve these problems in the short term. In the long term, we will see by living through it in which direction Turkey's structural situation evolves, and we will answer these questions then...

Afterword: I celebrate May 19th, our youth holiday, and I commemorate with gratitude Atatürk, who, despite everything, created a story with the power to create a spark of hope in every individual. With respect to his memory...