Why are people so unhappy?

This past week during class we had discussed many different topics about happiness. But one question that had been brought up that really caught my attention was Why are people so unhappy? I believe that people are so unhappy because we are all way too dependent on material things. We focus on external needs to make us happy and don't spend enough time reflecting on ourselves. We think that having the latest technology and staying on top of cool new things is going to make us happy but there have been plenty of examples where the more things we get the less satisfied we become. We loose the appreciation for the little things in life. For example coming to college I have never wasted so many hours of my days until I came here where I now have High speed Internet. Granted I love how I don't have to wait hours for videos and pictures to load any more it is really taking away from spending time getting involved with things and being more physically active. I feel as though the more material things we get I think the more it introduces us to unnecessary things. It introduces many more lazy ways to do things.
My question is Do you think if everyone found their own happiness beyond material things we would have more active fit people?