- Earlier, most work was done in factories and people were mostly workers. They detached from work once they were out of the factory.
- Now, if you are a marketing professional, your tool is your head. It never leaves you.
- So, even though your on-paper working hours might be less. You are working 24/7
Compared to prior generations, we are more into jobs like the marketing professional above. Hence, control over our time has diminished.
And since control over our time is such a key happiness influencer, we don’t feel much happier even though we are, on average, richer.
Related work on this topic
Link to originalIf the operating equipment of the 21st century is a portable device, this means the modern factory is not a place at all. It is the day itself. The computer age has liberated the tools of productivity from the office. Most knowledge workers, whose laptops and smartphones are portable all-purpose media-making machines, can theoretically be as productive at 2 p.m. in the main office as at 2 a.m. in a Tokyo WeWork or at midnight on the couch.
Author: Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
Link to original
- They valued friendships, being part of bigger things than themselves and spending quality unstructured time with their children