What is Happiness?
I feel I am most happiest when I am alone in a public space, free to explore. One day I went into town to meet up with a friend but he was running late, so I bought some specialty doughnuts from the bakery and some weird flavored soda from the local market, and then walked down to the waterfront and ate my food on a bench. I didn't talk to anyone, I didn't do any activity or have any life-changing experience, but its one of my favorite memories in the 5 years I have lived here, purely by how calm and relaxing it was. In this high-paced hectic world, we rarely get solitary moments like that and we have to appreciate them when they come by.
I do not think that a national happiness index is a good idea. It can be harmful in many ways, and I think just having it can cause low-scoring countries to go even lower on the scale, just by knowing they aren't happy compared to the rest of the world. Since it is in place however, I do think we are doing a good job with what we have, having different categories of happiness instead of just one mean score of all categories. It shows that no country is happy in every regard, and every country has at least one thing they are happy about.
The story "I've been called a Luddite" by Kurt Vonnegut states that we are ruining our society with technology. He believes that we are eradicating jobs in favor of machines, and we are losing touch with each other. I wholeheartedly disagree with every point put forward by Mr. Vonnegut, the society we live in is the most connected and social communities we have ever experienced in the history of man. New technologies allow people like me to live hours away from everyone I know and still communicate with them and create experiences and bonds everyday, through the power of computers. I can, and do, communicate with my closest friends everyday, telling them how I am doing, what my life is like, and enjoy games and TV shows together with them. I can call my family members who live halfway across the globe whenever I want and tell them I love them, and keep them informed on my life.
The NYT article "But Will It Make You Happy?" implies that the purchasing of material things is irrelevant in the pursuit of happiness and only the creation of worthwhile experiences is important in our modern lives. It cites the firsthand experiences of many people who decided to live simpler, moving from large houses to studio apartments, from homes to trailer parks, in the pursuit of hobbies, sports,and friendship. The "Work and spend" lifestyle as it calls it, is unfulfilling due to the ingrained concept of hedonic adaptation, which is humankind's innate ability to adapt to any circumstance. Of course this is a good thing, allowing us to live in harsh conditions and still maintain a level amount of happiness, but, this works in both ways and eventually we get used to the new TV, the new car, the new computer, and it becomes just another norm of life and we go back to our staple happiness after the buzz of buying new things goes away. Buying things can also turn into a war of how can have the better things with people we know. When the neighbors buy a fancy new BMW, you have to buy a jaguar, then they buy a Lamborghini, and now you're both in crippling debt. If you had just bought a surfing lesson in the first place, none of this would've happened.
This picture is an example of what makes me happy. This man is all alone in a park, eating a delicious sub sandwich. Judging by his attire, he is most likely on a lunch break from a corporate job, enjoying his environment. I really wish I was alone on a park bench eating a sandwich right now.
I do not think that a national happiness index is a good idea. It can be harmful in many ways, and I think just having it can cause low-scoring countries to go even lower on the scale, just by knowing they aren't happy compared to the rest of the world. Since it is in place however, I do think we are doing a good job with what we have, having different categories of happiness instead of just one mean score of all categories. It shows that no country is happy in every regard, and every country has at least one thing they are happy about.
The story "I've been called a Luddite" by Kurt Vonnegut states that we are ruining our society with technology. He believes that we are eradicating jobs in favor of machines, and we are losing touch with each other. I wholeheartedly disagree with every point put forward by Mr. Vonnegut, the society we live in is the most connected and social communities we have ever experienced in the history of man. New technologies allow people like me to live hours away from everyone I know and still communicate with them and create experiences and bonds everyday, through the power of computers. I can, and do, communicate with my closest friends everyday, telling them how I am doing, what my life is like, and enjoy games and TV shows together with them. I can call my family members who live halfway across the globe whenever I want and tell them I love them, and keep them informed on my life.
The NYT article "But Will It Make You Happy?" implies that the purchasing of material things is irrelevant in the pursuit of happiness and only the creation of worthwhile experiences is important in our modern lives. It cites the firsthand experiences of many people who decided to live simpler, moving from large houses to studio apartments, from homes to trailer parks, in the pursuit of hobbies, sports,and friendship. The "Work and spend" lifestyle as it calls it, is unfulfilling due to the ingrained concept of hedonic adaptation, which is humankind's innate ability to adapt to any circumstance. Of course this is a good thing, allowing us to live in harsh conditions and still maintain a level amount of happiness, but, this works in both ways and eventually we get used to the new TV, the new car, the new computer, and it becomes just another norm of life and we go back to our staple happiness after the buzz of buying new things goes away. Buying things can also turn into a war of how can have the better things with people we know. When the neighbors buy a fancy new BMW, you have to buy a jaguar, then they buy a Lamborghini, and now you're both in crippling debt. If you had just bought a surfing lesson in the first place, none of this would've happened.
This picture is an example of what makes me happy. This man is all alone in a park, eating a delicious sub sandwich. Judging by his attire, he is most likely on a lunch break from a corporate job, enjoying his environment. I really wish I was alone on a park bench eating a sandwich right now.
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| https://www.videoblocks.com/video/young-businessman-sitting-on-a-bench-eating-at-fast-food-4k-sqefpqutlizduz8ar |
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