Happiness is impossible to buy (get, acquire, steal, borrow, hang in a closet, put in a garage, lock with a key). And by the way, most of the pleasure comes from anticipating it. As soon as you got what you wanted, received your portion of pleasure, soon there comes inevitable disappointment, even depression and another search for new pleasure. This is very similar to alcohol or drug addiction. Yes, that is right. It is addiction.

And at some point, the possession of wealth ceases to give satisfaction. Then a person begins to look for pleasure in arousing the admiration of others - to boast, to show off. Social networks are full of glamorous selfies: me and my car, me and my yacht, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my house and so on. Admire! You see how successful and happy I am! If you don't have your own cool car, you can take a selfie at someone else's, leaning on its hood, and lie that it is yours. The main thing is to collect more "likes" and cause the envy of "friends".
But all this is not about happiness. This is about momentary pleasure. This is about pride and vanity. To our great regret, young people easily fall into the networks of a “developed consumer society”. Pay attention to how modern advertising works: “Be the number one!”, “Be the leader!”, “You deserve it!”. Such appeals flow in an endless stream into our eyes and ears. "Make a career!", "Earn more!", "Be successful!"
So, the concept of "success" in the modern world has also turned out to be distorted. Young people are taught that a successful person is someone who has an expensive car, an expensive watch, an expensive suit, and a prominent position in society. Is it really?
The Dalai Lama once said: “The Earth does not need a large number of “successful people”. It desperately needs peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. It needs people to live with. The world needs people with morality and love who will make the world humane."
There is also an ingeniously simple formula for happiness, which was derived by the great physicist Lev Landau. In his opinion, happiness requires three components in equal proportions: work, love and communication with people. Landau put work in the first place for a reason, believing that work is the main thing in a person's life, and this is so obvious that it does not require proof.
I think that self-improvement is also kind of work. Perhaps the most important and, at the same time, the most difficult. It involves obtaining the necessary knowledge; it takes a lot of time and requires a lot of effort. But such work is the first step to true happiness. Socializing with friends is also an essential element of happiness. It requires live communication, not online. This is what you should be proud of - your friends! And love is always there. The ability to love is a great happiness.
The famous literary character of the 19th century, Kozma Prutkov, put it simply and unpretentiously: "If you want to be happy, be happy!" Quite a simple recipe. Shall we give it a try?