According to the recent Harris Poll, only one in
thirteen Americans is happy. As the US happiness index has been declining for
the last decade [1] social media use rises every year.[2] While I agree
with Professor Dougal that these new technologies have practical uses, I
think that the obsessive use of social media may be a partial cause of the
happiness decline in the US. Think of the bombardment of tweets, pop-ups,
distractions and seemingly endless opportunities to compare yourself to the
glamorized photos of “friends” every time you log onto facebook or Twitter.
Comparing yourself to others and being distracted take away from happiness. A
Neuroscientist from Stanford University, Sylvia Morelli, expressed that, “Being
distracted reduces our empathy for others and blunts responses in the brain…
being distracted may also reduce our happiness.” I personally have a facebook,
twitter and LinkedIn account, but I invite all readers of my blog to be
judicial using these resources so that they do not become a happiness-reducing
distraction and resource for envious comparison.
[3] Rameson, Lian T., Sylvia A. Morelli,
and Matthew D. Lieberman. "The neural correlates of empathy: experience,
automaticity, and prosocial behavior." Journal of cognitive
neuroscience 24, no. 1 (2012): 235-245.
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