With increasing use of technology, the idea of “technology decreases happiness” often arises. However, I do not think that we should use the same set of standards to measure happiness as we used before technology advanced. In The Happiness Hypothesis written in 2006, Haidt predicted that meditation is one way people can reduce the effect of hostility they encountered and thus increasing one’s level of happiness, and good relationships also contribute to a higher level of happiness. With this hypothesis, Bugeja’s further concludes that, we are becoming less happy because we are losing the time for meditation and maintaining good relationship for time-consuming electronic media that comes with advanced technology. 

However, we cannot disregard the additional convenience and satisfaction that comes along with the technology that can make up for the happiness that we lost. For example, we can now connect with people far away whenever we want to with internet. In this case internet is helping us to maintain good relationships rather than undermining them. We can also save a lot of time with convenient tools developed in recent years, like search engines, automatic processes, and use the time saved on something that can improve our well being.

Moreover, for younger generations that grow up in a world of technology, even Haidt’s idea of happiness might not apply any more. People might find it more satisfying to acquire information rather than going through a meditation. This particularly applied to me, as I would like to absorb as much information as possible from the surroundings, and of course, from the internet at any time. When I am forced in a situation where I cannot gain information but can only rest, I would indeed feel very uncomfortable and depressed. In our video downtime, Alice starts browsing Twitter even when she’s tired, likely be because she feel the same way as I do, that browsing Twitter is a better way to relax for her.

As the age of information is here, maybe it is time to drop some bias towards technology, and allow new definitions of happiness to exist.

May

In this video we investigate on the idea of acceptance through digital media and specifically how we “routinely look to media and technology to bridge the interpersonal void” (Bugeja). The video is depressing but I want to look at the role of digital media in the video in a positive way.

As the title of the video suggests, Alice is experiencing a downtime. While she’s exhausted, she still goes on Twitter to “bridge her interpersonal void”. Why Twitter instead of directly talking to people? In my opinion, Twitter and other social media provide an easier way to keep connected to the world. You can be in any condition while browsing Twitter and you don’t always have to be in your best self. It becomes especially convenient when you are tired but want to feel accompanied. I am often in this condition when I am too tired to talk to anyone but I don’t want to feel all left out. Browsing social media sites makes me feel that I am still part of the outside world. This is not possible before technologies has been so advanced, so people had to make a choice between being comfortable and being connected, but now we can gain advantage of both.

In the video we can see that Alice’s phone is the thing that she keeps the closest with: when she finally gets rid of her burden (the backpack) and sits on the bed, when she lays down and staring at nowhere, she holds her phone in her hand; when she recovers some energy from the daze, she choose to browse Twitter on her phone; when she finally falls asleep, her phone is still in her hand. The phone as a digital media is inseparable from her at any time because it serves as more than an entertainment machine but also a connection to other people when she’s alone.

May