Technology and happiness

[flexagon]

I just found an online version of a cool article I read last week about technology and happiness. Turns out technology in personal life is sort of like money... not having enough can make you bloody miserable, but over a certain point, having more isn't all that great. That's the main point of the article, and probably isn't a surprise.

This quote was especially interesting to me though: One of the key insights of happiness studies is that people have a very hard time being content with what they have, at least when they know that others have more. Today, technological change is so rapid that when you buy something, you do so knowing that in a few months there’s going to be a better, faster version of the product, and that you’re going to be stuck with the old one. Someone else, in other words, has it better. It’s as if disappointment were built into acquisition from the very beginning (unless you’re buying a 70-inch plasma screen, in which case you should be fine for at least a couple of years). There’s no way to circumvent this drooping of the spirit, which creates dissatisfaction in the heart of the modern consumer.

I've thought about this issue before, but never managed to put it so nicely into words though. It's as if disappointment were built into acquisition... at least so long as one is constantly comparing oneself to others. Just one more reason to try not to get hooked on that.

I think one of my aims in the new year might be to study happiness more. Flow is fascinating, but I'm interested in what other happiness researchers have learned too.

Comments

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent quote. I have that very problem. It has been a huge struggle for me to get over that feeling. It's not so much that someone else has more/better (though that does happen sometimes, it was more when I was a teenager) but rather that something more/better is out there and I can't have it. It's taken me a long time to figure out that the material happiness from bringing home a shopping bag is short-lived and unsatisfying and doing it over and over again ("THIS time I'll be set...") won't help. Other things are more important.

The only material lust I refuse to curb is book lust, because I think book lust is ulimately a positive thing.

[apfelsingail.livejournal.com]

My dad has this thing going with a guy he works with. He will acquire some snazzy new computer toy/software from his dealer, who happens to be Bill's son. He then calls Bill to gloat. Bill then gets on the phone to his son, and orders whatever it was my father has, or the next generation. He then calls my father to gloat, who then calls Bill's son... it's a little crazy, but since I sometimes inherit the old stuff, I can't complain too much.