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Talking Heads ~ Happiness
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"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
A two week forum for opinions on anything in print: magazines, newspaper articles, online: bring your ideas and let's discuss.
Our Second Selection is: The Pursuit of Happiness
What IS Happiness? What makes you happy? Where does happiness come from? Why do some people always seem to have a half full glass? Is it true (as stated in one of the sub articles here) that happiness is contagious? Can you get a case of "happy" from being around happy people?
A new study just out in the March 20 issue of Science suggests that a perfect stranger may be more to accurately predict whether you'll like something than you are. How is that possible? What does that say about us? Have we become a nation of plugged in junkies who rely on televisions and the opinions of others to even enjoy something?
Is this why we read book reviews? Is this why we listen to movie critics?
Do you think as we age that we become who we were as children? If we were morose as children are we morose adults, only more so? Read this provocative article and/ or sub articles and give us your own thoughts on what constitutes happiness.
Here is the original article, and some intriguing sub articles on Happiness in Time Magazine: this article is listed in the Health section of the magazine, what has happiness to do with health?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1886607,00.html
Let's talk about the Pursuit of Happiness, has it gone too far, why are strangers more able to predict if we'll be happy and is it contagious?
Discussion Leader: Ginny
ginny:
Welcome! The Pursuit of Happyness is apparently not just a movie, it's a state of being, or what is it? Can you "will" yourselfl to be happy? Will, as some studies suggested a year or so ago smiling CAUSE you as a result to be happy? Can you make yourself happy? Should you? What IS "happiness?"
Now a new study released March 20th in Science Magazine and linked in the heading shows that...well it's pretty unbelievable, but you can read it for yourself: strangers are more able to predict whether or not you'll like something or be happy with the result than you are.
Huh?
That sort of begs the question, and it's something I have wanted to discuss for a long time: WHAT is TV doing to us? Not only TV but the mass media? Why do we need somebody ELSE to TELL us if we are going to like something? If I could find a good article on the effects of mass media on us, I'd love to kick it around especially since your local newspaper may NOT be coming much longer, they're dying out daily (mine is so small now it is pitiful).
But why kill trees? We must discuss that one and the effects on the small town, but Babi has brought us this amazing article, thank you so much, Babi, and it's from, among others, Time Magazine and their Health sections.
What has happiness to do with health?
What IS happiness? I've heard people say you can't "find happiness." The harder you look for it the less chance you have of finding it. Is that true?
What do you think of a study which has these results? Is "Happiness" catching?
Let's discuss!
I'll start by saying there is NO way somebody will be able to tell what I am going to enjoy in food or in books or anything else, nobody knows us the way we do. But they say not. They say we all think of ourselves as unique individuals...er......
What do you think? Can we try this out somehow? hahahaa Let's figure out how to try this out right here.
Everybody is welcome, it's an amorphous subject. What would you say on average tho, time wise, percentage wise, of the day that the average person spends daily looking for this ephemeral quality?
mrssherlock:
Yanh! Yanh! I get to be first! Seriously, the concept of happiness is somewhat foreign in this stage of my life. This will be a stretch for my feeble brain. I bought my ticket so I'll stay 'til the end of the line, so to speak.
mrssherlock:
Oops! I should have said changes in my happiness do not account for much of my thinking these days. Sorry. There are some interesting sociological findings which pertain loosely to this topic. Hope I can find the citations.
ginny:
hahaha YOU are first! I was just sitting here thinking about the topic, watching the news, and a commercial came on and it struck me: do you ever see any UNhappy looking models selling anything?
Do we trust a man smiling happily talking to us more than we do one scowling?
Think even of the Presidential Debates: Nixon versus Kennedy. Why was it thought Nixon lost?
Do we have a perception that Success= Happy? Is that true?
Maybe this happiness thing is more pervasive than we've even thought of. :)
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