Looking at a child living under acceptable conditions, you’ll see that they have the tendency to see the good in everything and be genuinely happy. On the other hand, when you look at an adult, you are more likely to find a drained soul forcing a smile onto their face, the joyful child they once had been nowhere to be found. While some people may say this is because they have grown up and all, and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong assuming that, I believe there is more to it. The reason for these adults to lose their spark, their excitement in life is because they gain knowledge.
You see, as one grows to be older, they encounter many different situations. Yes, they encounter many and with almost all of those new experiences, they gain new knowledge. It doesn’t have to be something critical for their living, but it still is something. It is also a fact that, for the most part, negative emotions are felt more intensely than positive ones, and therefore their effects last longer. Sucking away the positive things, they tend to grow stronger like this monster that feeds off of the good, and it usually is a good bit of time before one starts to fade away, only for another to take the previous one’s place. The other thing about it is that they don’t have to be caused by a major event in one’s life. Something as simple as waking up five minutes late or your toast’s crust not being crispy enough can also be a reason for a negative emotion to fill your insides, starting to munch on you. More knowledge also means a wider perspective, in most cases that doesn’t always have a happy ending either.
To sum up, I believe that people with less knowledge are, for the most part, happier than those with a good amount of it. This is because of how those with a wider view on situations often will have gone through a good amount of suffering to reach the point they are at, therefore they tend to be less happy.
