Review Of Secrets To A Happy Life 'By Anahad O' Connor's Article

Reporter, Anahad O’connor, wrote the article, “The Secrets to a Happy Life, From a Harvard Study”which explains the correlations found to be factors of a truly happy life from a study conducted at Harvard. Many young adults believe that the key to living a happy life are obtaining wealth and fame, but some researchers wanted to prove that mind set wrong. Over the past 75 years, researchers tracked 268 Harvard sophomores and 465 of boston's young men from the poorest neighborhoods. As many of them went on with their life some became successful, John F. Kennedy being one of them, and others lived out miserable sickly lives. The most important factors found were the importance of not smoking or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, and that healthy

The experiment consisted of more than 700 men who were closely tracked. Over 250 attended Harvard and the rest were young men from the poorest neighborhoods near Boston who managed to avoid delinquency. The study started in 1938 and still exists today. Over the first few decades, some of the men became successful and lived a comfortable life, including our president JFK. Others turned to alcohol, drugs, or had disappointing jobs. Throughout the study the researchers found many factors to live a happy life. The main factors are to avoid smoking, not drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, and among all others was to create healthy and long lasting relationships with friends and family. Being able to count on others through thick and thin protects them from chronic disease, mental illnesses, and memory decline. “Our study has shown that the people who fared the best were the people who leaned into relationships with family, with friends, and with the community” (O’connor 3). O’connor ends his article with a couple of ways to help make better relationships including replacing screen time with people time, reach out to people you haven't spoken to in a while, or recover that broken relationship with that disliked family member. All of which are believed to make your life healthier and

This is all the author writes about the opposite sides opinion, which is not enough because otherwise it just seems like a description of a study rather than an argument proving the opposite sides opinion wrong. Just a little after this the author uses a logical fallacy, faulty dilemma, “whether people are likely to age happily and healthily, or descend into loneliness, sickness, and mental decline”(O’connor 1). He makes it seem as if there are only two ways your life can end up. The possibilities are endless. The author tells us that the people studied were, “doing well in their young adult development”(O’connor 2), and the others who , “managed to avoid delinquency” (O’connor 2). The reader is told these very general descriptions of who was chosen to participate in the study but both descriptions could be very opinionated. I could think that someone was doing well, but the researchers might not think the same as me. There should have been some more specific specifications on who was chosen. Later they reveal the results of the peoples lives, but again are not very specific. The closest thing to numbers they give are, “some” (O’connor 2), or, “others” (O’connor 2). Although the author is not very specific throughout this article, he does make some good points that make sense, like, “the single most important thing you could do was to avoid smoking” (O’connor