Technically Happy (Compare/Contrast)

As the family gathers around the kitchen table, they belly laugh until tears stream down their face as they attempt a 5,000-piece puzzle. The first time mother gazes almost sheepishly at her new baby while he sleeps in her arms. Jumping so high it appears she’s floating, the new bride-to-be beams as her new fiancée slowly gets off of his knee. All three of these are images and memories shared by friends when I asked them, “What is your happiest moment?” I loved how a group of friends from the social media network, Facebook, defined happiness; they said it is “an emotion characterized by a good, contented feeling inside.” Surprisingly however, when asked if technology is a hindrance or improvement, the answers showed that most people, like me, consider technology to enhance their happiness and connection with people.

To understand if technology in today’s modern world hinders or improves an individual’s happiness, I sought to find out what makes people happy. I did it in the fastest and most broad way I could think of; I posed the question using technology via social media sites, along with face to face interviewing of my mom and best friend. A general theme ran through each response; the most common answer was that relationships are making the people around me happy. My friend, Jocelyn, posted on Facebook that, “my children (most of the time), friendships, sunshine, Diet Coke, and my family,” are what make her happy. My mother, Connie, slowly had a smile creep across her face as she echoed similar sentiments as Jocelyn when she stated, “Watching my children happy as they walk through life brings about deep joy for me.” As she was saying those words, her state of mind changed as the images of her children’s happiness brightened her mood.

Happiness, for so many, centers on the enjoyment of and connection with other people, and the common theme among my friends and family was that technology was an added bonus in making the connection happen. My best friend, Melanie, laughed at the question saying, “…technology is a way of staying connected to people, despite distance.” It reverberated through each response that whether a text message is sent as someone sits in a hospital in another city, or an encouraging comment is posted on Facebook, technology draws a line between two individuals that otherwise would not be there. Connie looked over at the computer just feet away and mentioned, “…being able to Google the possible diagnoses the doctors were giving her [my grandmother] while he [my grandfather] was in the emergency room, was a bigger blessing than physically sitting in a waiting room with her worrying. I was able to ease my mother’s mind instead of adding to her stress.”

A large majority of the individuals I posed my question to; however, made clear that technology by itself does not produce happiness; it is a means for building a bridge in relationships that might not exist in another fashion. Sitting in a room holding a turned on television does not give you a warm, fuzzy feeling of happiness, any more than sitting in a turned off car in your garage does. When technology is not focused on another individual or a connection between two people, it is a senseless robot that merely exists; someone becomes only a set of calculated numbers moving through time and space. Jocelyn stated, “most of the reasons it [technology] makes me feel happy is because it is somehow connected to something else that makes me happy: connecting with friends, learning something new, or increasing my imagination.”

I have found, if used properly, technology in today’s modern world can be a facilitator of happiness, but does not hold the key to happiness in itself as a whole. As much as it is argued that we are disconnecting from personal interaction, a text message at an opportune time from a friend could very well be as close to your heart as a hug in another moment. However, like all things, it is good to keep technology in moderation and not hold it as the only means of connection, but simply as a tool.