In modern days technology is being used for everything, even to promote happiness. Two of the websites explain that we explored were “happier” and “happify”. These websites explain ways to be happy and they give activities online that will supposedly boost your level of positivity. They make you think about the good things in your life and be grateful for them. Also, “hedonometer” is another website where a timeline of twitter shows what trends have been the happiest for people over the past years. Moreover, another website that we looked into was “ the world-well being project” which is about trying to look for ways of measuring psychological and health well-being through the usage of language in social media.

It is very creative and advanced what these types of websites are being used for. Which is providing proper with different types of websites are being used for. Which is providing people with different types of activities that may or may not improve their emotional well-being. However, I personally believe that technology is not enough for a person to express their feelings. A person needs to talk out their emotions with someone else. Or do something that involves physical and mental effort. These positive efforts will eventually provide the individuals with sufficient skills to deal with their negative emotions.

People are social animals. They need to interact with each other in order to survive in this life. Technology provides them with convenient communication, sure. Although, it does not provide individuals with effective communication. It is very different to have a conversation face to face, compared to having a conversation through a screen. A person can miss on interpreting in a right way the language of another individual. For example, having some eye contact would be more meaningful or just a small pat on the shoulder and so on. Also, I think some of these websites might be too positive up to the point where it seems a little unrealistic to be so positive when many factors in life are making people depressed. The only way that technology might be beneficial in my opinion is by convenience of finding data correlating to improvement of the wellbeing. It is much faster and more accessible for researchers of topics.

Before looking at these three websites based on happiness I’ve never realized before the role that technology plays in ones happiness. I do believe technology brings happiness to people, depending on how your using it. If your texting a friend, going on social media, taking pictures, using an app or playing a game, that can definitely increase ones happiness. After looking at these sites I honestly thinks it’s a good idea to relate happiness to technology. People are very busy and to be able to go on their phone, which are permanently attached to peoples hand anyway, and bring some happiness their way.

The first link was to a website called Happier. This website offers courses that offer daily lessons that help one learn tips and tricks that are scientifically proven to help focus on what makes someone happier. It offers many things such as ridiculously affordable the courses are, and even some are free. Theres even a on-the-go option where each episode can be completed in under 15 minutes on the web or on a phone. This website basically gives the steps on how to become a better you and courses or episodes can be taken to get you there.

The next link was to a website called Happify. This website is different in the way that everything is based on science. They offer activities and games that help you to train the brain and build skills for lasting happiness. This website helps one reach their goals by recommending daily activities so we can be more excited about our future. Just like the previous website it allows to be used on the phone or a computer. There’s even evidence of how happiness is increased after joining happify.

Finally the last link showed the average happiness for twitter. It shows when happiness was at it’s highest on holidays. This was very interesting to look at, Christmas Day is the highest in happiness, not surprising but interesting to know. All these websites of course have in common, HAPPINESS. I had no idea there were these websites to help people increase their happiness. If it works for someone and has a positive impact then great, go for it. I definitely do think it’s interesting and should be tried. The websites draws me in, it made me want to join, all the pictures and personal stories was one of the main reasons of wanting to join. If it can work for someone else, it can work for me too was a thought as going through the website. Everyone wants happiness so I’m sure others are willing to try.

Well after going through the links I am even more confused on how to achieve happiness, just kidding. Basically two of the links were measuring well-being based on social networks and what people posted. One focused only on twitter to measure how much people tweeted about it. And the university of Pennsylvania looked at various things including Facebook and twitter. Then there was Happify and Happier, both pages suggested they could help a person feel “happier”. Honestly I didn’t know such pages even existed. The measuring pages weren’t really surprising though, I feel like now a days people think they can tell a lot from what people post on their social media. Which I don’t think is true at all, some people don’t post their whole life on Facebook you don’t know when there happy or when there sad, so how can we really use social media to get results. Also I think that kind of brings up privacy issues. If I know that what I’m posting is going to be looked at as a measure, I’m not going to post it, that just weird, in my personal opinion. I think there was actually a whole thing on the news about how Facebook was monitoring people’s statuses for some study. Kind of makes you think twice about what you post. Well at least that’s what I think.
Happify is a site that offers different plans on how to become happier and more positive after answering a few questions. After signing up because I wanted to really get a feel for it I was offered to start with a “Conquer your negative thoughts” track plan. Well that doesn’t sound too right; I don’t have any negative thoughts. This is where I find an issue with this cite. I have a problem with these kinds of things because they give you a questionnaire of 10 or so questions and then tell you how you can fix yourself. Well that doesn’t seem too legit. How are you going to know about a person from a couple of questions? This track is free but if I wanted to try something like “Get out of rut & live life to the fullest” that would be a premium and I would have to pay about $4.74 a month. Hmmm buying happiness? I don’t know, this looked a bit suspicious to me. But if I take the two year discount I would only pay $3.16 a month, all this to be able to use other tracks that are too good to be free. On happier there are also courses offered. Free forever? But what about that premium? There it is again. If I wanted to take the course happier makeover I would have to pay $4.99. Now I’m not complaining about the prices. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t false advertise. I feel as though the site is making the argument that they can help me feel happier if I take these course or pay. Who’s to assure me that those 4 or 5 dollars spent on the course will actually benefit me? Although I can purchase one right now, I can’t help but wonder that after someone takes a premium course, other premium course are probably suggested to take also. So is it really just all about business and advertising? I don’t know, What do you think ?

Throughout these different websites they share a little insight on how they believe people can benefit from their websites and ultimately end up happy. But can an app really contribute to your happiness? In my opinion I don’t see how complete strangers over a website can really make you happy. Of course there are little things such as talking to others and sharing, but true happiness comes from within. Another thing brought into play was measuring happiness. This time it wasn’t through surveys, it was through twitter. They use people’s tweets to determine whether they are happy or sad by the words that they use. This could either be a really good idea or just really ridiculous. It could be a good idea because it’s somewhere that some people do vent and say what they want how they want but it’s also ridiculous because it’s just a social network. People can lie about it and no one would know. Someone can post a heart wrenching tweet one day and be blissful the next, posts on social networks don’t determine current emotional states, they are just posts.

Although technology is undoubtedly upgraded and given to people for entertainment and happiness, does it really always do that for us? Every other month there’s a new phone that can do more, take better pictures and is faster than the last. It all seems so flashy and everyone of course wants it but would that make you happy? It seems like these phone companies believe so. As shown in the charts people are happier around the time of holidays and festivities, maybe it’s because they are times of togetherness and sharing. That is more beneficial towards happiness than a cellphone or laptop.

On one of the sites they give various ideas on how you can bring about your happiness. Like eating healthier, doing yoga, being active, getting a make over, meditating, changing your style, better sleeping habits and better “happy” habits. Although I don’t completely agree with finding happiness through a website, these are good ideas that you can try out on your own and see how they make you feel. I believe this because these are all things that would help someone build themselves up again. They can practice these different methods and if it works they can continue and it doesn’t cost a monthly fee. It makes more sense to do this then to register with some random site who promises happiness. They are also things that can boost your health and that means taking care of your basic needs which actually is proven to contribute to happiness.

Technology could help someone be happy but it could also hinder the process. When you think about it, people are so hooked to electronic devices that they sometimes don’t notice the world around them. Not saying that it’s unexpected, technology is extremely convenient but it could also hold people back from doing things that could possibly help them get happy. Such as missing a hiking trip to be chatting online or skipping a game night to be on webcam. Technology is helpful and can contribute to happiness but it shouldn’t be a major factor in it.

Technology, social networks, social media, apps plays a huge role in peoples lives. It can make some people happy or it can ruin peoples life because it’s a way for you to contact with friends,family and see what they’re doing, then it can ruin you by what you post or what you put on social networks because it can be taken out of content . Also it can keep you posted on certain things such as if you’re into sports, clothes, fashion , music, or artist you like thats why social media is there and apps such as ESPN app, NFL, NBA to keep you updated on what is going on.

Technology is way more advanced in society today because back then in the 1900s and before we couldn’t text one another or when we are typing a paper we couldn’t go back and fix corrections, back then if you messed up on a paper you would have to do it all over again. Back then they didn’t have voice mail, speed dial, texting or anything we can do now with technology now it is more advanced and quicker for people to communicate with each other which make us happier because if we need to contact someone and can’t get through to them with a call or texting, then we can email them or leave a voicemail for them to hear it or see it.

Social media can play both parts it can make some people happy and it can make some people unhappy. For example with couples social media can make a girl or a guy feel a way about something they saw either on face book, Instagram or twitter and it can either destroy their relationship or make it better if both people are willing to compromise and talk it out rather than letting what they saw on social media affect how they feel . On the other hand social media can be great because others can see what you allow them to see by what you post on your account and it can be great because some people get famous by posting their music, their art, their style and it only takes the right person to see the potential for someone and it can be great such as Justin Bieber, he got famous off youtube it took the right person to see his music and now he is a millionaire or just a 20 year old kid with a lot of money. Therefore social media can play both parts I think.

Apps can also playa role in happiness because I for example have apps on my phone that I need to keep me posted such as my work app it keeps me posted with my work hours and what i should get paid when I do get paid , and my urban outfitters app although I work there I keep up with it because I can keep customers connected with the deals we have in case they don’t know and it makes me happy when I come to work and my manager or associates tell me customers asked for me, it makes me feel good about myself because that means I am doing my job.

Lastly technology, social media, social network , and apps can make people happy for certain reasons because it can get you into a lot of situations or it can make you into something but for some people it can control them because some people can’t live without checking their Instagram , Facebook , or twitter for a day because they’re addicted to it, but for some it’s something not that important to them.