Happiness Is It Over Rated?
Ranked #8,024 in Culture & Society, #164,879 overall
how happy are you right now? is the world happy or sad?
Are you happy? Exactly how happy is the world right now? What is the mood of the planet? To judge by what you see in the newspapers and on the television the world is full of bad news and unhappiness.
Is our happiness affected by the news of disaster and misfortune that occurs around the world. Before the media revolution people never really had the wall to wall instantaneous coverage of news stories from all over the planet. I wonder if we are designed as human beings to emotionally cope all of this information?
According to psychologists we use 'rules of thumb' or heuristics to help us manage all the information in the world. One of these is called the 'judgmental heuristic'. It works like this; the more you see something bad the more you believe it is likely to happen to you. So the moment a disaster around the other side of the planet happens and you see it on the news the more skewed your judgement becomes about bad stuff in the world.
There is a conspiracy theory about this which runs; make sure people feel anxious and insecure in the world, this will make them feel down. In order to relieve these bad feelings they will go shopping because it will give them a buzz and make them feel happy for a while. Its only temporary though and so we have to keep the bad news coming so they keep spending.
There is of course a solution to this. Reduce time spent watching TV news and devote more time to simple local interests and pleasures. Some might say this is putting your head in the sand. I would say that we have an emotional reservoir that we all need to call on at times in our lives. Life throws challenges at us. If we use up our reservoir worrying about things we can't influence and that don't directly influence use then surely we have less available when we really need it.
Being happy can come from the simplest of things. A family visit, a walk in the country, a nice swim, learning to play an instrument. So how happy do you feel right now!
Is our happiness affected by the news of disaster and misfortune that occurs around the world. Before the media revolution people never really had the wall to wall instantaneous coverage of news stories from all over the planet. I wonder if we are designed as human beings to emotionally cope all of this information?
According to psychologists we use 'rules of thumb' or heuristics to help us manage all the information in the world. One of these is called the 'judgmental heuristic'. It works like this; the more you see something bad the more you believe it is likely to happen to you. So the moment a disaster around the other side of the planet happens and you see it on the news the more skewed your judgement becomes about bad stuff in the world.
There is a conspiracy theory about this which runs; make sure people feel anxious and insecure in the world, this will make them feel down. In order to relieve these bad feelings they will go shopping because it will give them a buzz and make them feel happy for a while. Its only temporary though and so we have to keep the bad news coming so they keep spending.
There is of course a solution to this. Reduce time spent watching TV news and devote more time to simple local interests and pleasures. Some might say this is putting your head in the sand. I would say that we have an emotional reservoir that we all need to call on at times in our lives. Life throws challenges at us. If we use up our reservoir worrying about things we can't influence and that don't directly influence use then surely we have less available when we really need it.
Being happy can come from the simplest of things. A family visit, a walk in the country, a nice swim, learning to play an instrument. So how happy do you feel right now!
Contents at a Glance
Happiness Index Tweets
"Happiness is the meaning
and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and
end of human existence"
Aristotle
What Makes You Happy Poll
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Happiness Quotes and Sayings
Mood Map - A Picture Of Happiness
tracking Twitter streams to see how happy the world is - click map for the current happiness state of the planet
Pulse Of The Nation
Alan Mislove of Northeastern University in Boston Uses Twitter to track the daily mood of America -click graphic for more details
a dynamic way to track the mood of a whole country
I'm Happy tweets
How Happy Are You Right Now Poll
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Great Stuff on Amazon
How Happy Are You This Week Poll
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Happiness Links
- Happiness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- What happiness is
- History of Happiness - Pursuit of Happiness
- Leading theories of happiness through history, from philosophy to psychology
- Oxford Happiness Questionnaire
- Survey to measure personal happiness developed by psychologists at Oxford University. Instructions included so you can take it on the web.
- Five Great Ways to Achieve Happiness Through Serving Others
- Zen habits
- 5 Research-Proven Ways to Increase Happiness
- 5 Research-Proven Ways to Increase Happiness.
- Happiness as defined by a 5 year old kid | Daily Rumble
- This is actually a real life incident! When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they
- Twitter mood maps reveal emotional states of America
- How is the US feeling right now? The emotional words contained in hundreds of millions of tweets may hold the answers
How Happy Are You This Month Poll?
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Happiness on the internet
- Study suggests married people are happier
- (WXYZ) - There may be a lot of nay sayers out there when they get wind of this study. But, you'll be hearing a lot of folks telling you, "I told you so," as well. Michigan State University researchers claim that married people are happier people than ...
- What Is the Relationship Between Age and Happiness?
- What Is the Relationship Between Age and Happiness? This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Are people less happy or more happy the older they get? If you answered more happy, then you were right, based on a study published two years ago.
- Happiness wave study reveals happy pensioners, and debunks middle-age blues myth
- (Medical Xpress) -- People are at their happiest at retirement age and their most miserable in their geriatric years, a new study has found. The study into the 'happiness wave', conducted by Dr Tony Beatton of Queensland University of Technology and ...
- Somebody else's happiness
- By Oksana MYKOLIUK, The Day Kyiv International Institute for Social Studies has been doing researches on the level of Ukrainians' happiness for over 10 years. Recent surveys showed that it decreased significantly during 2011 and 2012.
How Happy Are You This Year Poll
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Happiness Motivators Poll
Psychologist Steven Reiss of Ohio University has identified 16 basic desires that drive our happiness. In his paper Multifaceted Nature of Intrinsic motivation: The Theory of 16 Basic Desires, published in the Review of General Psychology 2004 vol. 8 (3) 170-193 he shows how no matter who we are we are all driven by one or more this motivators when seeking happiness.
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Happiness Index Poll
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Stumbling On Happiness - Why Are We Happy?
Dan Gilbert's Ted Talk - click his photo
Dan Gilbert Stumbling On Happiness
Stumbling on Happiness
Amazon Price: $8.48 (as of 06/01/2012)
Featured Happiness Lenses
Does Squidoo Make You Happy
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"Happiness is like a kiss...
you must share it to enjoy it."
Be Happy
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raphaelo
Dec 12, 2011 @ 3:21 pm | delete
- So proud and very happy to be here.. Another wonderful work of you.. my great friend :) Have wonderful times.. always.. Robinson the great :D
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GreenfireWiseWoman
Aug 23, 2011 @ 7:54 am | delete
- Great lens. Thank you.
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Irenemaria Aug 11, 2011 @ 3:16 pm | delete
- Concider my medication list is long as my arm, I am happy for a lot of things. Its sad that Bobby McFerrin comitted suicide after singing that song.
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